Visa adds five blockchains

Visa said Wednesday it added five blockchains to its stablecoin settlement pilot: Base, Polygon, Canton, Arc and Tempo. (visa.com) That expands the pilot to nine supported networks for issuers and acquirers settling obligations with Visa, instead of relying only on traditional bank transfers. (visa.com) Visa said the program is now running at a $7 billion annualized stablecoin settlement pace, up 50% from the previous quarter. (visa.com) (coindesk.com) Stablecoin settlement is the back-end step where financial institutions square what they owe Visa using digital dollars on a blockchain, rather than moving money only through banking rails. (visa.com 1) (visa.com 2) The new list mixes public and enterprise-focused networks. Base is backed by Coinbase, Polygon is a high-throughput payments chain, Canton is aimed at regulated markets, Arc is built by Circle, and Tempo is Stripe’s network. (visa.com) (coindesk.com) Visa had already expanded the pilot in 2024 to support four stablecoins across four blockchains, including Ethereum, Solana, Stellar and Avalanche. (visa.com) The company has also been adding distribution around those rails. In March, Visa and Bridge said they planned card products tied to stablecoin balances, and Visa said Lead Bank had joined the settlement pilot earlier this year. (visa.com) Visa said it now has more than 130 stablecoin-linked card programs in more than 50 countries. That gives the settlement pilot a larger base of issuers, acquirers and wallet partners that may want faster treasury movement behind the scenes. (visa.com) (decrypt.co) The immediate change for shoppers is limited: Visa’s announcement is about how institutions settle with the network, not about replacing card checkout with crypto wallets at the register. (visa.com) What Visa is testing is whether blockchain networks can become another payments back end, sitting under familiar cards while money movement becomes faster and more flexible for the companies in the middle. (visa.com)