Visa Boosts Stablecoin Settlement on Solana Blockchain

Visa, the world’s payment giant, announced the pilot programs in partnership with payment processors Worldpay and Nuvei. The goal is to enhance cross-border payment efficiency through stablecoin settlement expansion, particularly USDC, and Solana integration. The move was first published on BusinessWire.

According to the press release, Visa has successfully moved millions of USDC (USD Coin) using the Solana and Ethereum blockchain networks to facilitate instant settlement of fiat-denominated payments authorized through VisaNet.

Stablecoin Settlement Expansion

With the live pilots, Visa’s treasury and settlement systems has ensured the smooth flow of funds between the issuer and acquirer’s banks. This complex process seamlessly connects nearly 15,000 financial institutions across over 25 currencies globally. Visa consumers can experience nearly instant payment authorizations at millions of merchant locations worldwide.

Explaining the reason behind the addition of Solana network, Visa said that Solana is a high-performing blockchain that enables fast payments with lower costs. With this move, Visa became one of the first payment leaders to integrate Solana into their live settlement payments.

The Solana blockchain is recognized for its exceptional efficiency, boasting a mere 400-millisecond block processing time. It maintains an average transaction throughput of around 400 transactions per second (TPS). Moreover, the network can manage over 2,000 TPS across diverse application scenarios during periods of increased demand.

Cuy Sheffield, Visa’s Head of Crypto, highlights the role of stablecoins like USDC and blockchain networks like Solana and Ethereum in speeding up cross-border settlement and offering modern fund transfer solutions. Visa is committed to embracing these technologies to revolutionize money movement.

Visa’s blockchain journey began with tests using USDC within its treasury operations. This led to a pilot with Crypto.com, making Visa one of the first major payment networks to experiment with stablecoin settlement as an issuer. This pilot successfully utilized USDC and the Ethereum blockchain for cross-border transactions, streamlining settlement processes and reducing costs.

Visa’s efforts now extend to acquirers like Worldpay and Nuvei, serving global merchants, including those in the blockchain and crypto sectors. By using Visa’s Circle account, these acquirers can now receive settlement payouts in USDC and pass them on to their end merchants, simplifying the settlement process and providing flexibility.

Jim Johnson, President of Worldpay Merchant Solutions, said that, “Visa’s USDC settlement capability enables Worldpay to bring more of our treasury operations in-house and allows us to offer merchants more choices for receiving funds.”

Philip Fayer, Chair and CEO, Nuvei, specifically outlined the important role of stablecoins like USDC in business growth. The CEO added that the use cases of stablecoins will not be limited to cross-border settlement optimization. Stablecoins have the potential to revolutionize the way businesses make international payments.

Stablecoin Gains Momentum among Payment Leaders

Cross-border transactions can be expensive and time-consuming, due to the need to convert currencies and the involvement of multiple intermediaries. Stablecoins can help to reduce these costs and delays, by providing a more efficient way to transfer funds between different countries. That explains why many payment giants has increasingly embraced stablecoins.

PayPal, one of the global digital payment leaders, introduced its own stablecoin PayPal USD (PYUSD) in August. In partnership with Paxos, PayPal’s stablecoin initiative is made accessible to US customers through PayPal app. Coinbase recently added support for PYUSD under “experimental label.”

In July 2021, Mastercard and Circle announced a strategic collaboration to explore the use of USDC for settlement in a pilot program. The goal of the pilot is to test the use of USDC as a means for card issuers to more easily settle payments to Mastercard, helping accelerate the world towards greater use of internet-native financial infrastructure.

More people will use stablecoins, and may explore other blockchain assets too!