Stablecoins Prompt Visa to Re-Imagine Card Rails for Digital Dollars

Visa’s stablecoin strategies could include the launch of its own coin someday.

That’s according to a report Tuesday (Aug. 12) from Bloomberg News, citing sources familiar with the matter, as the news outlet examines Visa’s wider efforts in the stablecoin space.

“This is just another mechanism for value exchange,” Cuy Sheffield, Visa’s head of cryptocurrency, said in an interview with Bloomberg, referring to stablecoins more generally. “I see it massively expanding our addressable market.”

The Bloomberg report says many analysts see stablecoins as a potential opportunity for Visa, and not a threat. Stablecoin payments are in theory cheaper than card fees, they still require services such as fraud prevention, dispute resolution and compliance checks, along with connections to bank payment rails and fiat currency conversion.

Visa, the report continues, wants to serve as a bridge as the flow of money shifts, using its infrastructure to help make stablecoins more mainstream for merchants and consumers.

“They are going after the land grab of empowering every possible stablecoin platform with a payment capability,” said Richard Crone, chief executive officer of payments consultant Crone Consulting. “This is a really big opportunity.”

Asked by PYMNTS about the assertion that Visa is weighing its own stablecoin launch, a company spokesperson said that in the stablecoin ecosystem, it is difficult to rule anything out.

“But our focus is on what we can do today: scale stablecoin-linked cards, enable stablecoin settlement, and work closely with our bank partners to help them leverage stablecoins across a range of use cases. That’s our near-term priority and what’s active in the market right now. ”

Visa spent a large portion of its recent earnings call on its ongoing investments and bets on stablecoins, which had just become legally operable digital assets in the U.S.

“Consumers and businesses are using stablecoins to save money in U.S. dollars, but they also want to spend that money, and there’s no better way to do that than with a Visa crypto card,” Visa CEO Ryan McInerney said in a call with analysts.

“We are piloting and partnering with stablecoin companies … as we build out our stablecoin settlement stack … we are working to streamline treasury operations, improve liquidity management and enable quick and more cost effective cross-border transactions.”

“We are also helping banks issue their own stablecoins and realize the benefits of programmable money,” the CEO added. “There is so much more to come in this space.”

PYMNTS examined the growth of stablecoins in a report last week, arguing that while there are still some logistical and regulatory obstacles, there’s evidence that stablecoins “are not just waiting around” to become part of the larger financial system.

“Instead, they’re partnering, building and plugging themselves into traditional finance, with the goal of reshaping not just how money moves but the store of value itself,” the report said.