Key Takeaways:
- Visa’s stablecoin settlement pilot reached a $7 billion annualized run rate in April 2026, up 50% from the prior quarter.
- Visa now supports nine blockchains, including Polygon, Base, and Arc, covering 130-plus card programs in over 50 countries.
- Circle, Coinbase, and Polygon joined Visa’s expanded multi-chain settlement layer.
Visa Pushes Stablecoin Settlement to 9 Blockchains as $7B Run Rate Hits 50% Growth
The expansion gives issuers and acquirers more options for settling VisaNet obligations directly in stablecoins. Visa’s pilot originally launched with four networks: Avalanche, Ethereum, Solana, and Stellar. The five new additions bring the program’s multi-chain reach into territory that covers institutional compliance, consumer-grade throughput, and programmable settlement infrastructure.
Rubail Birwadker, Global Head of Growth Products and Strategic Partnerships at Visa, said the expansion reflects how partners operate today. “Our partners are building in a multi-chain world, and they expect their options to reflect that reality,” Birwadker said. “Expanding our stablecoin settlement pilot program to more blockchains means our partners can choose the networks that best fit their needs, while relying on Visa to provide a common settlement layer across all of them.”
Each newly added blockchain serves a different segment of the payment market. Arc, built by Circle, targets programmable commerce and real-time settlement using USDC. Base, powered by Coinbase, focuses on fast, low-cost transactions for stablecoins and onchain assets. Canton was designed for regulated capital markets and offers configurable privacy for institutional compliance. Polygon brings high-throughput infrastructure suited for global payment volume. Tempo aims at private, efficient stablecoin liquidity movement.
Jesse Pollak, founder of Base, called the move a step toward making stablecoin payments a daily reality for billions of people. Marc Boiron, CEO of Polygon Labs, said the inclusion of Polygon signals that stablecoins are entering real-world payments at scale.
The pilot’s growth benchmarks are concrete. In December 2025, Visa extended USDC settlement to U.S. institutions, at which point monthly volume had already reached a $3.5 billion annualized run rate. That figure has since doubled. The $7 billion figure reflects live volume, not projections, and represents a 50% jump from the prior quarter.
More than 130 stablecoin-linked Visa card programs now operate across more than 50 countries. The program has run live pilots and regional rollouts across Latin America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Visa began testing stablecoin settlement with USDC as early as 2021, starting with pilots on Solana. What began as experimentation has shifted to operational infrastructure that financial institutions, fintechs, and payment providers are actively using.
Eric Saraniecki, Head of Network Strategy at Digital Asset and co-founder of the Canton Network, said Visa’s platform lets regulated institutions explore onchain settlement without departing from their compliance requirements.
Nikhil Chandhok, Chief Product and Technology Officer at Circle, pointed to Arc’s capacity for real-time settlement and agent-driven economic activity. Ani Narayan of Tempo said Visa’s role as both a validator and settlement partner brings always-on, programmable payments closer to broad use.
Global stablecoin supply has grown massively, with liquidity spread across multiple chains. Visa’s approach positions the company as a unified settlement layer across that distributed ecosystem rather than anchoring to a single network.
For issuers and acquirers, the practical effect is faster settlement, 24/7 availability, and more flexibility in how they manage liquidity across blockchain networks. Visa said it remains focused on matching the reliability and security standards of its traditional rails.
The nine-chain milestone puts Visa’s stablecoin infrastructure in a different category than pilot programs. The volume, the partner roster, and the institutional participation suggest the program has moved past proof-of-concept into ongoing operational use.
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