Key Takeaways
- Visa now allows US institutions to settle USDC transactions through Solana.
- With this rollout, the company aims to improve treasury efficiency, liquidity timing and operational resilience for banks and fintech partners.
Visa brings USDC settlements to US issuers and acquirers, expanding its stablecoin capabilities to key institutional settlement operations, global payments giant announced Tuesday.
Visa’s partners can now settle in USDC, a leading stablecoin issued by Circle. The launch follows Visa’s early experiments with stablecoins. Growing global settlement activity now exceeds $3.5 billion annually.
Visa said banks such as Cross River Bank and Lead Bank have started to settle in USDC via the Solana blockchain. The company expects to expand access to the solution across the US by 2026.
The solution provides seven days of availability, faster settlement cycles and more predictable liquidity management, benefiting banks and fintechs without changing the cardholder experience.
Discussing the rollout, Rubail Birwadker, Visa’s Global Head of Growth Products and Strategic Partnerships, said the decision follows increasing interest from banking partners who are actively preparing for adoption.
Birwadker added that financial institutions want fast, programmable settlement tools that work alongside existing treasury systems.
“By bringing the USDC settlement to the U.S., Visa is delivering a reliable, bank-ready capability that improves treasury efficiency while maintaining the security, compliance and resiliency standards our network requires,” he noted.
“Bringing a USDC settlement with Visa to the U.S. is a milestone for Internet traffic at the speed of software,” said Nikhil Chandhok, Chief Product and Technology Officer at Circle. “It helps card-issuing financial institutions modernize treasuries and unlock new services, while maintaining the transparency and trust that USDC is known for.”
Visa is partnering with Circle as a design participant for Arc, a new layer 1 blockchain aimed at supporting large-scale institutional operations. These efforts reinforce Visa’s strategy to modernize its settlement infrastructure while maintaining high standards of security, compliance and resilience, the company said.
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