Visa shift its stablecoin settlement capabilities to Solana

Visa, which is on the top of the list in payments, is planning to shift its stablecoin settlement potential to the Solana blockchain. This is an integral part of its plan to upgrade cross border movement. For this, it has formed associations with Worldpay and Nuvei. Through live pilot projects connected with issuers and acquirers, Visa has been instrumental in transferring large volumes of USDC amongst its associates on top of the Solana and Ethereum blockchain networks for settling fiat denominated payments allowed over VisaNet. 

In the case of consumers utilizing Visa cards for buying at every one of the establishments accepting Visa cards, they will come in for immediate payment consent. However, the money utilized for the buying requires a movement between their bank and the merchant bank. In this situation, Visa’s treasury and settlement model comes into play. It allows the processing, settlement and shifting of large volumes of transactions daily. This activity is carried out amongst roughly 15,000 financial institutions through over 25 currencies the world over. 

According to the Head of Crypto, Visa, Cuy Sheffield, through the utilization of stablecoins such as USDC and international blockchain networks like Solana and Ethereum, they are able to make cross border settlement happen faster and make way for a new-age choice for their clients to be able to conveniently send and receive funds out of the Visa treasury. 

Visa initiated the experimentation of ways in which USDC can be utilized within its treasury functions in 2021. Thus began a pilot project with Crypto.com, turning Visa into the first entity to experiment on stablecoin settlement in terms of issuance. From here, a pilot project was born, utilizing USDC and the Ethereum blockchain for receiving payments from Crypto.com in the case of cross border volume regarding their live card program in Australia. Currently, Crypto.com is known to utilize USDC for its settlement requirements on the Visa card in Australia. 

Prior to the pilot project, matters of settlement of cross border buying carried out on Crypto.com Visa cards needed one day for converting currency, along with expensive global wire transfers. Presently, however, Crypto.com is able to transfer USDC cross border on top of the Ethereum blockchain straight to a Visa treasury controlled Circle account, saving time and unnecessary complications while carrying out global wire transfers. 

In the words of the Co-Founder and CEO of Circle, Jeremy Allaire, they are enthusiastic regarding the use cases Visa and its associates are furthering for the building of basic blockchain innovation. In his opinion, Circle created USDC to offer a working digital dollar that was capable of fast movement for initiating safe and dependable payments. 

Currently, there is a requirement of utilizing fresher and more powerful blockchains that can carry out sending and receiving stablecoins faster and with cost effectiveness. This is the reason for Visa honing in on Solana. This makes Visa the initial entity to make use of Solana for the sake of live settlement payments amongst its clients. 

The Solana blockchain is known to carry out 400 millisecond block times, which means 400 transactions in a second, and pushes to over 2K TPS1 throughout multiple use cases. Prominent personalities like the President of Worldpay Merchant Solutions, FIS, Jim Johnson and the Chairman and CEO of Nuvei, Phillip Fayer are extremely appreciative of the way Visa is forming fresh associations and leading towards the future.  

Visa is a global company engaged in digital payments and responsible for carrying out transactions amongst consumers, as well as merchants, financial institutions, and government bodies throughout 200 countries and more. Their aim is to ensure a safe and convenient payment network internationally.