Visa has reached a $25 billion annualized run rate for stablecoin settlements, marking a tenfold increase compared to the previous year. CEO Ryan McInerney delivered this figure during the company’s fiscal fourth-quarter earnings call on October 27, highlighting significant momentum for stablecoin use within its network.
Visa pushes stablecoin growth
Visa, the global payments giant, now conducts part of its card settlement operations across 10 different blockchains. The selection of which stablecoins are adopted for these settlements could prove influential for issuer market share, especially as Tether’s USDT—currently the largest stablecoin—remains excluded from Visa’s supported tokens.
Visa has also invested in the Open USD (OUSD) stablecoin, further intensifying the competitive environment among stablecoin issuers participating in its settlement system.
Stablecoin settlement expansion
On the latest earnings call, McInerney stated, “In stablecoin settlement, our run rate has surpassed $25 billion in annualized volume, up 10x year-over-year.” Alongside stablecoin volumes, Visa reported quarterly net revenue of $12.1 billion—a 13% increase—and a record full-year net revenue of $45.9 billion, up 15% from the prior year.
Settlement in the Visa system refers to the back-office process where card issuers and acquirers settle their mutual obligations, a critical function of the payments infrastructure but not directly tied to consumer purchases.
Asked about Visa’s approach to different tokens, McInerney described the platform as “stablecoin agnostic” and “blockchain agnostic.”
Currently, Visa supports settlement in five stablecoins: USD Coin (USDC), Global Dollar (USDG), Euro Coin (EURC), PayPal USD (PYUSD), and SBC, issued by Brale.
Mini dictionary: Brale – A financial technology company known for issuing SBC, a dollar-pegged stablecoin used in institutional settlement applications.
These five tokens are currently settled across 10 blockchains and support all five of Visa’s international operating regions, more than doubling the blockchain count from the prior year.
Stablecoin-linked card programs surge
Visa counts more than 225 card programs linked to stablecoins, an increase of over 70% year-on-year. These programs process transactions from about 5 million cards in more than 50 countries, with overall transaction volume rising more than 150% in the past year. The Visa Stablecoin Platform, designed to facilitate stablecoin-based payment products, now operates in the U.S., Mexico, Puerto Rico, Colombia, Switzerland, and the U.K. Over 300 partners are reportedly in the pipeline.
Commercial adoption is also growing. Nearly 17% of all transaction volume on stablecoin-linked cards involves business or commercial card programs.
Open questions and industry backdrop
The reported $25 billion is an annualized run rate based on current activity, not an actual cumulative total for fiscal 2026. Details remain unclear on how this volume is distributed among the five supported stablecoins and their underlying blockchains. There is also no explicit connection between these settlement figures and Visa’s fiscal 2027 revenue projections.
Visa and Mastercard recently took ownership stakes in Open USD (OUSD), a new stablecoin with over $800 million in circulation as of October 15. OUSD is not yet one of Visa’s settlement tokens, and it remains unknown if Visa will include it in the future. McInerney said OUSD will be integrated into other Visa products, such as Visa Direct, but did not specify the timeline for settlement support.
On October 15, Visa announced that USDC prefunding for its Visa Direct cross-border payouts has moved from pilot to commercial deployment, expanding practical stablecoin usage in global transactions.
More settlement activity does not guarantee changes in any token’s price, as stablecoins are structured to maintain fixed value. The main benefits are likely to accrue to issuers and the associated blockchain ecosystems rather than to short-term investors.
Market conditions and competition
Most major cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and XRP, traded lower over the 24 hours ending at 07:13 UTC on October 29. The Crypto Fear and Greed Index stood at 51, or “Neutral.” There is no evidence linking these price changes to Visa’s stablecoin settlement disclosure.
| Asset | Price (USD) | 24h change | 7d change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bitcoin (BTC) | $79,817 | -1.25% | -3.48% |
| Ethereum (ETH) | $2,307.20 | -1.87% | -5.17% |
| Solana (SOL) | $99.78 | -2.09% | -4.74% |
| XRP | $1.29 | -2.57% | -3.77% |
For perspective, the total stablecoin market had $308.85 billion in supply across 174 tokens on October 5. USDT dominated with 59.6%, and USDC accounted for 24.1%. Since USDT is not supported by Visa, settlement activity is concentrated in USDC and the other four stablecoins.
Industry experts have argued that competition among stablecoins could increasingly play out on Visa’s network. However, this dynamic may change if banks and issuers transition to settling transactions directly onchain without card networks acting as intermediaries.
Visa’s $25 billion run rate underscores the growing adoption of stablecoins in global payment infrastructure, but distribution details and competitive dynamics among issuers remain key factors to watch.
