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Stablecoin-linked payment cards are emerging as a meaningful driver of growth for Visa’s blockchain settlement business, underlining how digital currencies are increasingly being absorbed into mainstream payments infrastructure rather than displacing it.
Stablecoin cards push Visa
According to comments made by Visa executives to Reuters, the company’s stablecoin settlement platform is now processing volumes at an annualised run rate of $4.5bn.
While that remains marginal compared with the $14.2tn of total payments Visa handled last year, the trajectory is notable.
Monthly growth is accelerating, driven largely by providers issuing cards that allow consumers to spend stablecoins at traditional merchants.
Why Stablecoins Still Need Card Networks
The underlying dynamic is straightforward. Despite rapid growth in stablecoin issuance and transfers, most merchants do not accept stablecoins directly.
Card-based access therefore remains the most practical bridge between on-chain value and off-chain commerce.
Visa’s Head of Crypto, Cuy Sheffield, has argued that this gap actually increases the relevance of Visa’s network.
Stablecoin card programmes rely on Visa not only for acceptance but also for settlement, fraud controls, dispute management and regulatory compliance.
In effect, stablecoins reduce friction in treasury and cross-border flows, while Visa provides the rails that make those assets spendable in the real economy.
These transactions ultimately settle over VisaNet, Visa’s global processing network that underpins credit, debit and ATM payments worldwide.
Building a Multicoin, Multichain Stack
Visa has been steadily expanding the technical scope of its settlement platform.
Support now extends across multiple dollar-backed stablecoins, the euro-denominated EURC, and several public blockchains.
The strategy is explicitly agnostic: Visa is positioning itself as a neutral interoperability layer, rather than backing any single issuer or chain.
This approach reflects a broader thesis articulated by Visa’s leadership. CEO Ryan McInerney has described the company as a “hyperscaler” for money movement — a platform others can build on, rather than a closed ecosystem competing with them.
BVNK Partnership Signals Operational Scale
That philosophy is evident in Visa’s expanding partnership with BVNK, which will provide stablecoin infrastructure for Visa Direct.
The integration allows selected business customers to pre-fund payouts using stablecoins and, in some cases, distribute funds directly to recipients’ digital wallets.
Visa Ventures’ investment in BVNK in 2025 reinforced the strategic alignment.
With BVNK already processing more than $30bn in stablecoin payments annually, the collaboration gives Visa immediate operational scale in markets where demand for digital dollars is strongest.
Evolution, Not Disruption
For Visa, stablecoins are not a threat to the card model but an extension of it. While on-chain payments may reduce certain costs, they still require trusted intermediaries to handle risk, compliance and global acceptance.
Stablecoin cards — and the settlement infrastructure behind them — suggest that the future of payments is less about replacement and more about convergence.
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