Visa Teams With Tether Co-Founder to Develop Onchain Banking Services

Visa Direct is Visa’s global money-movement platform, connecting businesses to eligible cards, bank accounts and digital wallets. Adding stablecoin rails could make cross-border payouts available beyond conventional banking hours, give corporate clients more flexibility in managing liquidity and allow recipients to receive dollar-denominated digital assets without relying solely on local banking infrastructure.

Visa announced its collaboration with Zerohash on Aug. 5, 2026, enabling eligible Visa Direct clients to prefund accounts with stablecoins and distribute payouts in the digital tokens. Zerohash will provide infrastructure spanning liquidity, settlement and regulatory compliance, while Visa supplies the distribution network. Visa Direct connects to more than 18 billion eligible endpoints across cards, bank accounts and digital wallets.

Western Union, one of the world’s largest remittance providers, serves about 100 million customers and moves more than $100 billion annually across over 200 countries and territories and roughly 130 currencies. Stablecard links that established money-transfer network with blockchain infrastructure and Visa’s acceptance footprint, allowing recipients to retain value in a dollar-denominated asset and spend it without first withdrawing cash. The product marks a significant step toward bringing stablecoins into routine cross-border payments.

Western Union launched the Stablecard wallet and payment card with Visa and stablecoin infrastructure provider Rain on August 4, 2026. The service uses USDPT, Western Union’s U.S. dollar-backed token issued by Anchorage Digital Bank on Solana. Initial availability includes Argentina, Colombia, Mexico and the Philippines, while the card program covers 37 markets and targets more than 60 by year-end. Customers can receive remittances in USDPT and spend the balance at about 175 million Visa merchant locations worldwide.

Stablecoins are moving beyond crypto trading into cross-border payments, treasury management and round-the-clock settlement, pushing card networks to define their role in onchain finance. Visa is positioning itself as an interoperability layer rather than a stablecoin issuer, linking fiat money, blockchains, wallets and its global merchant network. The strategy matters because preserving Visa’s network effects and service revenue will depend on remaining essential as payment infrastructure becomes programmable.

On July 28, 2026, Chief Executive Ryan McInerney told Visa’s fiscal third-quarter earnings call that the company had invested across blockchain, wallet and infrastructure layers, saying its role was “not to pick winners.” Visa joined Open Standard and on July 16 launched a platform initially supporting Open USD. It plans to connect Pismo for tokenized deposits and AI-driven commerce. Visa’s settlement pilot spans nine blockchains and was running at an annualized $7 billion, up 50% quarter on quarter.

Stablecoins are moving beyond crypto trading into payments, cross-border transfers and corporate treasury operations, prompting established networks to connect blockchain rails with conventional finance. Visa’s strategy is to shield banks and fintechs from the technical and compliance burden of running wallets and onchain workflows themselves. The stakes are considerable: Visa settles about $15 trillion annually and connects roughly 15,000 financial institutions with more than 200 million merchants, giving it a distribution network that could accelerate institutional use of digital dollars.

Visa on July 16, 2026, unveiled the Visa Stablecoin Platform, or VSP, a managed environment for minting, redeeming, holding and transferring stablecoins. The initial rollout centers on Open Standard’s newly introduced Open USD (OUSD) and interoperates with Visa’s existing stablecoin services, including Circle’s USDC and Paxos’ USDG. VSP also offers Wallet-as-a-Service, dual-approval controls, audit logs and transfer allow lists. Beta access is initially limited to selected clients. Visa already processes several billion dollars in stablecoin settlements and aims to fold those flows into existing payment, treasury and settlement systems.

Visa has tested stablecoin settlement using USDC on Ethereum since 2021, allowing issuers and acquirers to settle VisaNet obligations over blockchain networks. The model could overcome the constraints of banking hours and cross-border transfers, providing a supplementary settlement channel for traditional payment networks.

Visa said on April 29, 2026, that it had added Arc, Base, Canton, Polygon and Tempo. Together with Avalanche, Ethereum, Solana and Stellar, the additions brought the number of supported networks to nine. Its annualized settlement run rate reached $7 billion, up 50% quarter on quarter. On June 4, Visa also began testing privacy-controlled institutional settlement on Canton with Brale using the US dollar stablecoin SBC.

Visa is continuing to integrate blockchain into its payments network and digital-asset strategy, focusing on stablecoin settlement, asset custody and exchange services. Its expanded partnership with Taiwan’s OwlTing Group could help issuers meet customer demand for managing on-chain assets. The move also reflects how traditional payments companies are accelerating efforts to connect fiat currencies with blockchain-based financial infrastructure.

Visa recently announced that it was deepening its partnership with OwlTing Group and supporting Tempo, an emerging blockchain backed by Stripe and Paradigm, for on-chain payment use cases including agentic commerce. As of July 20, 2026, the companies had not disclosed the value of the partnership or a formal launch date. The current focus is on strengthening digital-asset custody, exchange and value-added services for issuers.

Tempo is a Layer 1 blockchain launched by Stripe and Paradigm in September 2025 for real-time stablecoin payments and AI agent commerce. It raised $500 million in a Series A round the following October at a $5 billion valuation. Visa's move from using onchain settlement to operating an underlying network node itself marks more direct involvement by a traditional card network in payment infrastructure.

Visa announced on April 14, 2026, that its Tempo validator node was live after six months of collaboration with Tempo's engineering team. Independently configured and managed on Visa's own infrastructure, the node orders and confirms transactions and helps secure the network. Visa, Stripe and Standard Chartered Group's Zodia Custody are among the first external validators. No investment amount was disclosed for the partnership.

Stablecoins maintain their value through fiat-backed assets and can reduce the time and cost of cross-border transfers, but everyday spending requires connections to card issuance, settlement and merchant networks. Stripe completed its $1.1 billion acquisition of Bridge in February 2025. Visa's partnership with the infrastructure platform effectively connects onchain funds to the global card-payment system.

Visa announced an expanded partnership with Bridge on March 3, 2026. Stablecoin-linked cards are already operating in 18 countries and are expected to expand to more than 100 countries across Europe, Asia-Pacific, Africa and the Middle East by the end of 2026. Bridge has also joined Visa's onchain settlement pilot through Lead Bank, allowing Phantom and MetaMask users to spend stablecoins directly on everyday purchases.