Visa launches stablecoin platform for 200M merchants

Visa ↘ 0.44% on Wednesday unveiled the Visa Stablecoin Platform, an enterprise-grade infrastructure that allows banks, fintechs, and crypto firms to mint, move, and manage stablecoins through a single system connected to the payments giant's global network of more than 15,000 financial institutions and 200 million merchants.cryptobriefing+2

The platform, known as VSP, represents the company's most ambitious move yet into blockchain-based payments, letting institutions integrate stablecoin capabilities into existing payment and treasury operations without building separate infrastructure.visa+1

A Growing Stablecoin Footprint

Visa's stablecoin push has accelerated rapidly. At its Payments Forum in June, the company disclosed an annualized stablecoin settlement run rate of approximately $7 billion as of March 2026, up from $3.5 billion at the end of 2025. The company now operates 130 stablecoin-linked card programs across 40 countries, and in early July announced plans with Bridge, a Stripe company, to expand stablecoin-linked card issuance to more than 100 countries by year-end.fortune+4

VSP also supports Open USD, a consortium-backed stablecoin announced on June 30 by Open Standard, which counts more than 140 companies among its partners, including Mastercard ↘ 0.09%, BlackRock ↗ 1.50%, Stripe, Coinbase ↗ 11.66%, and Google Alphabet Inc. ↗ 0.21%. Open USD is designed to launch on Solana ↗ 11.68% first, with Base, Stellar, and Polygon to follow.solcard+1

Stablecoins as Rails for AI Agents

Separately, Visa and blockchain analytics firm Artemis published a joint research report examining how AI agents are beginning to transact autonomously using stablecoin rails. The report draws on live onchain data from two protocols — x402, stewarded by the Linux Foundation, and the Machine Payments Protocol built by Stripe and Tempo with Visa contributions — and argues that stablecoins are well suited for machine-native micropayments where traditional card fees make sub-dollar transactions uneconomic.visa

"Cards are a good fit for the proxy and macro purchases that happen inside today's merchant networks. Stablecoins suit the machine-native micropayments," the report states, adding that the two rails are "starting to look less like rivals and more like parts of the same system."visa

Regulatory Tailwinds

The launch comes amid a broader industry push into stablecoins following the passage of the Genius Act in July 2025, which established a U.S. regulatory framework for the tokens. Deloitte has projected that more than $200 billion in U.S. retail payments will be stablecoin-enabled by 2030.deloitte+1