Visa accelerates entry into the stablecoin payment market

Global payments company Visa is embarking on a full-scale effort to expand its virtual asset (cryptocurrency)-based payment network.

According to Cointelegraph on the 29th (local time), Ryan McInerney, Visa CEO, said on the Q4 earnings conference call, "Visa will support four additional stablecoins that run on four unique blockchains," and added, "These stablecoins are issued based on two fiat currencies and can be converted into more than 25 traditional currencies."

Visa already supports USDC, EURC, PayPal USD (PYUSD) based on the Ethereum (ETH), Solana (SOL), and Avalanche (AVAX) networks. With this additional support, Visa is expected to further expand the scope of stablecoin payments within its payment network.

McInerney said, "There is a clear growth trend in the stablecoin sector," and added, "Since 2020, the volume of virtual asset and stablecoin payments processed by Visa has reached $140 billion." He went on to say, "Global consumer spending on payment cards linked to stablecoins has increased more than fourfold year-over-year."

Since last September, Visa has been experimenting with prepaid cross-border transfers using USDC and EURC through the "Visa Direct" pilot program. It is also preparing measures to allow banks and financial institutions to issue and burn their own stablecoins through the Visa platform.