Visa Expands Stablecoin Payment Options Using Circle’s USDC on the Solana Network

15

Global payments processing leader Visa has announced the enhancement of its stablecoin settlement capabilities to include the Solana blockchain.

Visa has successfully carried out real-world pilot tests with both issuers and acquirers, enabling the smooth transfer of millions of stablecoin tokens across the Solana and Ethereum blockchain networks. These transactions were performed to settle fiat currency-based payments that had been approved through VisaNet.

Visa Expands Stablecoin Settlement

In its recent announcement, Visa also disclosed its collaboration with merchant acquirers Worldpay and Nuvei. The company initially began investigating USDC’s role within its treasury operations in 2021, which resulted in a pilot with Crypto.com, positioning it as one of the leading payment networks to explore stablecoin settlements from the issuer’s viewpoint.

This initiative subsequently led to a successful pilot utilizing USDC and the Ethereum blockchain to receive payments from Crypto.com specifically for cross-border transactions within their active card program in Australia.

The pilot effectively removed the cumbersome process involving conversions and expensive international wire transfers for cross-border purchases on Crypto.com Visa cards. Consequently, Crypto.com has shifted to USDC to meet its settlement obligations for its Visa cards in Australia.

Commenting on the advancement, Cuy Sheffield, Visa’s Head of Crypto stated,

“By leveraging like USDC and global blockchain networks like Solana and Ethereum, we’re helping to improve the speed of cross-border settlement and providing a modern option for our clients to easily send or receive funds from Visa’s treasury. Visa is committed to being on the forefront of digital currency and blockchain innovation and leveraging these new technologies to help improve the way we move money.”

Tapping into Solana

Visa emphasized the increasing demand to utilize newer, high-performance blockchains that can send and receive stablecoins with greater speed and reduced costs as its reasoning for engaging with Solana. With this initiative, Visa has become one of the first major payment companies at scale to directly employ the layer 1 blockchain for live settlement payments between its clients.

Meanwhile, the Solana network has experienced consistent enhancements in performance and reliability, maintaining uninterrupted service for over six months and achieving 100% uptime since February.

SPECIAL OFFER (Sponsored) Binance Free $100 (Exclusive): Use this link to register and receive $100 free and 10% off fees on Binance Futures first month (terms).
PrimeXBT Special Offer: Use this link to register & enter CRYPTOPOTATO50 code to receive up to $7,000 on your deposits.