Visa Launches Stablecoin Platform to Serve Over 200 Million Merchants

Visa, a world leader in digital payments, has officially introduced the Visa Stablecoin Platform (VSP), a new enterprise solution designed to make stablecoin integration straightforward for financial institutions, fintech companies, and crypto-native businesses.

The platform operates as a single, Visa-managed environment where participants can access, store, and redeem stablecoins.

Building on Visa’s broader crypto strategy, VSP gives FIs, fintechs, and other payment providers a simple way to access, store, and redeem stablecoins, beginning with Open USD (OUSD), a new stablecoin recently introduced by Open Standard.

According to Jack Forestell, Visa’s Chief Product and Strategy Officer, stablecoins represent programmable money with significant potential, but institutions often struggle with the operational side.

Announcing the launch of the platform, he said,

“Stablecoins are opening up a new layer of programmable money, but for most institutions the hard part isn’t the concept, it’s the operational reality. With the Visa Stablecoin Platform, we’re giving our clients a single place to mint, move and manage stablecoin operations with the controls, security and network reach they already expect from Visa. It’s how we help them turn interest in stablecoins into real products and real payment flows.”

Visa Stablecoin Platform provides direct access to a range of stablecoin capabilities and flows alongside Visa’s network, risk and fraud capabilities, so institutions can move from exploration to implementation with greater confidence.

These include:

• Access to Open USD: VSP integrates seamlessly into the Open Standard, providing institutions with direct access to Open USD alongside Visa’s network services. This gives clients a way to easily mint, burn, manage, and transfer Open USD, bringing fiat onchain and managing flows in an environment they already trust.

• Onchain wallet infrastructure: VSP packages the wallet infrastructure, controls, and workflows needed to make stablecoins usable inside real-world treasury, settlement, and product stacks for a range of institutional use cases.

• Integration into Visa’s network: VSP is designed to enable connectivity of stablecoins into Visa’s network and tools, allowing users to embed stablecoin capabilities into existing payment flows, treasury operations and settlement processes. For existing Visa clients using Visa’s settlement, treasury and currency solutions, VSP provides direct interoperability to seamlessly integrate stablecoins into the workflows and systems they rely on today.

• Built for trust on day one: VSP allows institutions to interact with stablecoin flows with the same security and trust that Visa is known for. Users will have access to features like dual-control approval for workflows, where one user initiates a sensitive action and another authorized user must approve it, comprehensive audit logging, and Wallet-as-a-Service features of secure passkeys and allow lists to control transfers, to help provide the level of security and control they require to operate.

The Explosive Growth of Stablecoins in Global Finance

Stablecoins have evolved from a niche crypto product into one of the fastest-growing segments of global finance. What began as a tool for crypto trading is increasingly becoming core payment infrastructure, enabling near-instant, low-cost, 24/7 settlement for businesses, banks, and fintechs.

According to Visa, the global stablecoin supply grew by more than 50% during 2025, rising from approximately $186 billion to $274 billion.

After adjusting for non-economic activity such as bots and high-frequency trading, stablecoin transaction volume was still on track to exceed $10 trillion in 2025, highlighting their growing role in real-world payments rather than speculation alone.

This rapid growth has prompted major payment companies to move beyond simply observing the market to actively building infrastructure around stablecoins.

The institutional push extends beyond card networks. Companies including Stripe, Circle, PayPal, Paxos and numerous fintech infrastructure providers are investing heavily in stablecoin payment rails, custody services and cross-border settlement capabilities.

Meanwhile, regulators in major jurisdictions are introducing clearer frameworks, encouraging traditional financial institutions to participate more actively.

Outlook

Stablecoins are increasingly being viewed not as a replacement for traditional payment networks, but as a complementary layer that enhances global money movement.

Instead of resisting the technology, industry leaders such as Visa are integrating stablecoins into their infrastructure, positioning themselves to support the next generation of digital payments.

By lowering technical and compliance barriers, Visa aims to help its vast merchant network more than 200 million businesses explore and adopt stablecoin payments more effectively.

This move builds on the payments giant’s ongoing crypto strategy and signals growing mainstream financial integration of stablecoins for faster, more programmable global payments.