TL;DR
- Visa adds Polygon to its growing stablecoin settlement pilot.
- Annualized settlements reach seven billion dollars, growing fast.
- GENIUS Act provides clearer US rules for payment stablecoins.
Visa just added five new blockchain networks to its stablecoin settlement pilot. Polygon, Base, Canton Network, Arc, and Tempo now join Ethereum, Solana, Stellar, and Avalanche on the payments giant’s growing list of supported chains. The company launched the pilot in 2023 to let partners settle transactions using stablecoins instead of traditional bank transfers. The program now runs at an annualized settlement rate of roughly $7 billion, growing about 50 percent each quarter.
Those numbers sound large, but they remain small compared to Visa’s core business. The company processes trillions of dollars in card payments every year. Still, the experiment matters. Visa wants to know if stablecoins can deliver faster settlements, 24/7 availability, and lower costs for moving money across borders.
The timing explains the push. Competitors like Mastercard stepped up their own stablecoin activity. Mastercard now enables stablecoin-linked card spending in the United States through integrations with wallets such as MetaMask. Payment software provider Modern Treasury also integrated with Polygon on Wednesday to help businesses move stablecoin payments faster. The infrastructure battle for stablecoin payments is now in full swing.
Regulation and Infrastructure Drive the Real Change
Visa’s expansion does not happen in a vacuum. The United States passed the GENIUS Act, which established clearer regulatory standards for payment stablecoins. That law removes some uncertainty for companies like Visa. They can now experiment with a known legal framework rather than guessing which rules apply.
Still, broader policy questions remain unresolved. A proposed market structure bill in the US debates whether stablecoins can offer yield to holders. That bill has stalled so far. Until lawmakers decide, stablecoins will likely stay as payment tools rather than savings vehicles.
The real fight happens underneath the user interface. Crypto-native companies and fintechs compete to build and control the settlement layer that moves funds between institutions. Visa wants a piece of that infrastructure. So does Stripe, which expanded its partnership with Visa in March to support a global card program linked to stablecoins via Bridge, a Stripe subsidiary.
Visa’s approach remains cautious. The company describes the pilot as an evaluation tool, not a full rollout. It tests whether stablecoin settlement can handle real-world volumes without breaking. The $7 billion run rate suggests the technology works, at least at medium scale. Whether it can scale to Visa’s core business levels remains an open question.
One thing becomes clear. Stablecoins are no longer a fringe experiment. Visa, Mastercard, Modern Treasury, and a wave of fintechs are betting real money on blockchain-based settlement. The GENIUS Act provided regulatory cover. The technology matured. And the volume keeps growing at 50 percent per quarter.
Visa’s move to include Polygon and four other networks sends a signal. The company wants optionality. It does not lock itself into one blockchain. Instead, it spreads its pilot across multiple networks to see which ones perform best. That approach makes sense for a payments giant that processes transactions globally every second of every day.
The next twelve months will show whether stablecoin settlement moves from pilot to production. Visa holds the keys to that transition. For now, the company keeps experimenting, keeps adding networks, and keeps pushing the boundaries of how money moves. The stablecoin payment race just got faster.
