Visa Expands USDC Stablecoin Settlement with US Banks
Visa is continuing the rollout of its USDC stablecoin settlement program on the Solana blockchain for banks in the United States. U.S. institutions like Cross River Bank and Lead Bank are reportedly participating in the initiative, with a broader expansion of the program expected throughout 2026.
- Visa's USDC settlement pilot first began in 2021 with Crypto.com, using the Ethereum blockchain to settle cross-border volume for their card program in Australia. The expansion to the high-performance Solana blockchain was announced in September 2023, adding major merchant acquirers Worldpay and Nuvei to the pilot program. - As of November 2025, Visa's stablecoin settlement volume reached an annualized run rate of $3.5 billion, processing transactions across Latin America, Europe, and Asia Pacific before the U.S. launch. This initiative modernizes Visa's treasury operations, allowing it to send and receive funds on-chain, which can speed up settlement times for its partners. - The choice of Solana is strategic, valued for its high throughput of up to 60,000 transactions per second, sub-second finality, and low transaction fees, which are crucial for handling Visa's large settlement volumes. This makes it one of the first major payment companies to utilize the Solana network for live settlement payments. - Cross River Bank, one of the initial U.S. participants, has a deep history in embedded finance and crypto, providing backend API infrastructure for major players like Coinbase and Affirm. The bank offers a "good funds model" which ensures on-chain transactions execute only after compliance and funds are cleared, alongside real-time minting and burning of stablecoins. - This move is part of a broader trend of institutional adoption where stablecoins are used for treasury operations, cross-border payments, and B2B transactions to improve speed and reduce costs compared to traditional correspondent banking networks. Banks are increasingly viewing stablecoins as critical payment "plumbing" for modernizing financial infrastructure. - Competitor Mastercard is also actively engaged in the stablecoin space, partnering with Circle to pilot USDC settlements and enable crypto-to-fiat conversions for its card programs. In August 2025, Mastercard expanded its partnership with Circle to allow acquirers in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa to settle transactions in USDC and EURC. - Visa is also a design partner for Arc, a new Layer 1 blockchain being developed by Circle, and plans to operate a validator node on the network once it goes live. This signals a deeper integration and strategic alignment with the underlying infrastructure of the digital asset ecosystem. - To support institutional partners, Visa launched a "Stablecoin Advisory Unit" in late 2025 to help banks, merchants, and fintechs design and implement their own stablecoin strategies and products. This follows the broader strategy of building a multi-chain foundation that also includes support for blockchains like Avalanche and Stellar.
