Visa Expands Stablecoin Capabilities to the Solana Blockchain

Payments giant Visa announced Tuesday that it expanded its stablecoin settlement capabilities with Circle’s USDC to the Solana blockchain to offer high-speed performance. 

On Tuesday, the San Francisco-based payments giant Visa announced that it expanded stablecoin settlement capabilities with Circle’s USDC. Visa said it added pilot programs with merchant acquirers Worldpay and Nuvei and is harnessing the power of the Solana (SOL) blockchain to do so. 

Visa Revolutionizing Cross-Border Payments

In a bid to modernize cross-border settlement transactions, Visa announced via a press release that it is expanding its stablecoin settlements to the Solana blockchain and is working with merchant acquirers Worldpay and Nuvei. Visa became one of the first major payment institutions to utilize Solana at scale to offer settlements.

According to its statement, Visa initiated pilot programs with merchant acquirers Worldpay and Nuvei. The two companies process credit and debit card payments for businesses globally. Worldpay and Nuvei’s clients can now receive settlements in USDC instead of fiat currencies.

Head of Crypto at Visa, Cuy Sheffield, said:

“By leveraging stablecoins like USDC and global blockchain networks like Solana and Ethereum, we’re helping to improve the speed of cross-border settlement and providing a modern option for our clients to easily send or receive funds from Visa’s treasury.” 

He added:

“Visa is committed to being on the forefront of digital currency and blockchain innovation and leveraging these new technologies to help improve the way we move money.”

Leading Stablecoin Settlements on Issuance

Visa began testing how USDC can be used inside its treasury operations in a partnership with Crypto.com in 2021. The testing allowed the payment processor to complete a successful pilot leveraging USDC and the Ethereum blockchain to receive payments “from Crypto.com for cross-border volume on their live card program in Australia.” 

Prior to its pilot program, cross-border settlements through Cryoto.com Visa cards took days to settle and involved expensive international wire transfers. 

Jeremy Allaire, Co-founder and CEO of Circle, commented:

“We are excited about the USDC use cases Visa and its partners are driving to create fundamental blockchain innovation.

Circle built USDC to provide a functional digital dollar that could move at the speed of the internet to facilitate secure, reliable payments. Expanding the pilot exemplifies how pairing USDC with Visa’s innovation opens up the future of payments, commerce and financial applications.” 

Visa announced in April it was building upon current blockchain technology to allow seamless transactions using stablecoins without involving fiat currency conversions. The payments processor explained stablecoin payments are critical to making crypto assets feasible for more people.

The company further described that removing the requirement to convert funds into fiat currencies has paved the way for businesses to get accustomed to stablecoin payments whilst allowing people to introduce them into their daily financial transactions. 

Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.