Increased Crypto Services and Investor Confidence
Global payments giant Visa is set to roll out support for four stablecoins across four unique blockchains, as the firm pushes to ramp up its crypto services. Visa CEO Ryan McInerney told investors on the company’s fourth-quarter and year-end earnings call on Tuesday that the firm will continue expanding its stablecoin offerings amid strong growth over the last financial year.
“We are adding support for four stablecoins running on four unique blockchains, representing two currencies that we can accept and convert to over 25 traditional fiat currencies.”
McInerney did not share details on the specific stablecoins and networks Visa will support, but this move will bolster the company’s supported list of networks and stablecoins.
Current Stablecoin Offerings and Growth Metrics
Visa already backs stablecoins, including Circle’s USDC (USDC) and Euro Coin (EURC), along with PayPal USD (PYUSD) and Global Dollar (USDG), on the Ethereum, Solana, Stellar, and Avalanche blockchains. McInerney highlighted that the firm sees “particular momentum with stablecoins,” pointing to $140 billion worth of facilitated crypto and stablecoin flows since 2020.
In terms of growth, he stated that global consumer spending within Visa’s stablecoin-linked card services increased fourfold over its fourth quarter, compared to the same quarter last year. McInerney added, “We expanded the number of stablecoins and blockchains available for settlement, and monthly volume has now passed a $2.5 billion annualized run rate.”
Strategic Focus on Stablecoin Banking and Cross-Border Transactions
McInerney indicated that key areas of focus for Visa will be to broaden its stablecoin offerings for banks and other traditional financial institutions, and to facilitate more cross-border transactions, noting that “there is much more to come in this space.”
The process began in late September via a Visa Direct pilot program, which enables banks and financial institutions to pre-fund cross-border payments using USDC and EURC.
According to McInerney, the next stage involves continuing to enhance and invest in Visa’s solutions layer, empowering the firm to offer more features to its clients and partners. A concrete example of this is the minting and burning of stablecoins.
“We are starting to enable banks to mint and burn their own stablecoins with the Visa tokenized asset platform, and we are adding stablecoin capabilities to enhance cross-border money movement with Visa Direct.”