Exclusive: Visa launches new platform to provide stablecoin services to more than 200 million merchants

Key Points:

• Visa has developed the Visa Stablecoin Platform, an internal system enabling banks and fintechs to manage stablecoins within existing Visa payment and treasury workflows, aiming to simplify stablecoin usage for its network of 15,000 financial institutions and over 200 million merchants.
• Stablecoins offer merchants the benefit of instant, low-cost transaction settlements with transparent, tamper-proof records maintained on blockchains, enhancing payment efficiency and security.
• The platform will launch with OUSD, a new stablecoin from the Open Standard consortium, complementing Visa’s existing stablecoin assets like Circle’s USDC and Paxos’ USDG.
• Visa views stablecoins as central to the future of financial infrastructure and focuses on minimizing technical complexity to encourage client adoption and integration into payment experiences.
• Since 2020, Visa has pioneered stablecoin settlements, becoming the first major payments network to settle transactions in USDC and launching a stablecoin settlement program in 2022; the new platform will consolidate all its stablecoin services under one umbrella.