Visa Says Stablecoin-Linked Payments Cards Drive Demand for Settlement Platform

Providers of stablecoin-linked payment cards are reportedly driving the demand for Visa’s stablecoin settlement.

The company’s stablecoin settlement volumes have risen to an annualized run rate of $4.5 billion, Reuters reported Wednesday (Jan. 14), citing its interview with Visa Head of Crypto Cuy Sheffield.

Those stablecoin settlement volumes are only a fraction of the $14.2 trillion in annual payments volume Visa processed last year, but “this is growing significantly month over month,” Sheffield said in the report.

“We’re seeing demand, and it’s mostly this class of stablecoin-linked card providers,” Sheffield said.

Because merchants generally don’t accept stablecoin payments, companies need Visa’s products and services “more than ever” to allow customers to spend their stablecoins, Sheffield told Reuters.

In a Wednesday post on LinkedIn, Sheffield wrote: “Great to speak with Reuters about the growing opportunity for stablecoin linked cards and stablecoin settlement over VisaNet.”

VisaNet is the company’s global network that powers its transactions, including credit, debit, ATM and more, according to its website.

The company said in July that it was continuing to add support for more stablecoins and blockchains on its settlement platform, with the latest addition at that time being two stablecoins backed by the U.S. dollar, two blockchains and the euro-backed EURC.

“Visa is building a multicoin and multichain foundation to help meet the needs of our partners worldwide,” Rubail Birwadker, global head of growth products and strategic partnerships at Visa, said at the time in a press release. “We believe that when stablecoins are trusted, scalable and interoperable, they can fundamentally transform how money moves around the world.”

It was reported in August that many analysts see stablecoins as a potential opportunity for Visa, and not a threat. While 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 CEO Ryan McInerney said during an October earnings call: “Visa has become a hyperscaler, enabling anyone that wants to be in the money movement or payments business to build on top of the Visa-as-a-service stack.”