Visa launches Stablecoin Platform for Banks, Fintechs

Visa has launched the Visa Stablecoin Platform, a service that lets banks, fintech firms and payment providers issue, hold and transfer stablecoins using Visa’s payments network. The platform launches with support for Open USD and incorporates Visa’s existing stablecoin integrations. Visa opened the service to a limited set of customers for beta testing before a wider rollout.

The platform combines stablecoin minting and redemption, wallet infrastructure and treasury management in a single enterprise system. It connects stablecoin operations to existing payment and settlement workflows so institutions do not have to build their own blockchain infrastructure to manage digital cash.

Built tools include wallet management, fund transfers, transaction approval controls and audit logs. The platform is designed to integrate with an institution’s treasury and settlement systems to keep reporting and controls aligned with current processes, Visa says.

Jack Forestell, Visa’s chief product and strategy officer, noted: “Stablecoins are opening up a new layer of programmable money, but for most institutions the hard part isn’t the concept, it’s the operational reality. With the Visa Stablecoin Platform, we’re giving our clients a single place to mint, move, and manage stablecoin operations with the controls, security, and network reach they already expect from Visa.”

Stablecoins are digital tokens intended to hold a stable value, most often pegged to the U.S. dollar. The stablecoin market is roughly $300 billion.

Visa has highlighted payments, settlement and treasury use cases for stablecoins. Earlier this year the company joined a privacy-focused blockchain network as a Super Validator and expanded its stablecoin settlement program to additional networks, bringing its total to nine supported blockchains.

Visa reported its annualized stablecoin settlement volume had reached about $7 billion and that it supports more than 130 stablecoin-linked card programs across over 50 countries. The company has also published research citing more than $600 billion in stablecoin lending activity in recent years.

The platform formalizes a set of operational services for institutions that want to run stablecoin programs while keeping existing controls, reporting and settlement processes in place. Visa plans to expand availability after the beta period with select customers.