Visa & Stripe Expand Stablecoin Payments
Visa is expanding its partnership with Stripe’s Bridge platform to over 100 countries, enabling global payments via stablecoin-backed cards. The move signals deepening ties between traditional finance and fintech, potentially boosting Stripe's valuation ahead of any future liquidity event.
This global expansion builds upon a product first launched in 2025 that initially focused on Latin American countries and is currently active in 18 markets. The plan is to now extend coverage throughout Europe, Asia Pacific, Africa, and the Middle East by the end of 2026. The collaboration enables users to make purchases directly from their stablecoin balances held in self-custody wallets like MetaMask and Phantom. A significant technical update allows card transactions to be settled directly on-chain using stablecoins, a shift from the previous model of converting to fiat currency at the point of sale. Stripe's involvement is powered by its subsidiary Bridge, a stablecoin infrastructure firm it acquired for $1.1 billion. The system primarily uses USD Coin (USDC), a stablecoin backed by dollar reserves, and supports transactions on multiple blockchains, including Solana and Ethereum, for faster, lower-cost processing. The cards can be used across Visa's entire network, which encompasses over 175 million merchant locations globally. This integration connects crypto-native users to a massive existing payment infrastructure, aiming to tap into the trillions of dollars in annual on-chain stablecoin transaction volume. This strategic expansion follows a February 2026 secondary share sale that reportedly increased Stripe's valuation to $159 billion, up from a $91.5 billion valuation in 2025. Moves that embed Stripe deeper into the crypto economy are seen as strengthening its market position ahead of a highly anticipated, though still unscheduled, initial public offering. For Visa, this is a major step in a strategy that began years ago. The company started testing USDC for settlement back in 2021 and has since partnered with more than 65 crypto platforms, signaling a long-term commitment to integrating digital currencies into its core operations. The push into regulated on-chain finance comes as Stripe's Bridge has already obtained conditional approval from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency for a national bank charter. This charter would enable the firm to custody crypto assets, issue stablecoins, and manage reserves directly.
