Visa Expands Stablecoin Pilot Programs With Worldpay and Nuvei

Visa has expanded its stablecoin settlement capabilities with Circle’s USDC stablecoin by using the Solana blockchain.

As part of the initiative, the payments company has added pilot programs with merchant acquirers Worldpay and Nuvei, Visa said in a Tuesday (Sept. 5) press release.

The purpose of these pilot programs is to test the movement of millions of USDC between Visa’s partners over the Solana and Ethereum blockchain networks, according to the release. This will enable the settlement of fiat-denominated payments authorized over VisaNet, Visa’s payment authorization network.

By leveraging stablecoins like USDC and global blockchain networks such as Solana and Ethereum, Visa aims to improve the speed of cross-border settlement and provide a modern option for clients to easily send or receive money from Visa’s treasury, the release said.

“Visa is committed to being on the forefront of digital currency and blockchain innovation and leveraging these new technologies to help improve the way we move money,” Cuy Sheffield, head of crypto at Visa, said in the release.

Visa’s journey into stablecoin settlement began with a pilot program in 2021 in collaboration with Crypto.com, according to the release. This pilot tested the use of USDC within Visa’s treasury operations and resulted in successful settlement leveraging USDC and the Ethereum blockchain for cross-border volume on Crypto.com’s live card program in Australia. This innovation eliminated the need for days-long currency conversion processes and costly international wire transfers.

While Visa’s treasury operation continues to test receiving funds on-chain from multiple issuer partners, the new settlement options will allow Visa to send funds on-chain to global acquirers like Worldpay and Nuvei, speeding up settlement times for their merchants, the release said. Visa will manage settlement payouts in USDC to Worldpay and Nuvei through its Circle account, and these payments will then be routed to their end merchants.

To expand its capabilities further, Visa has added support for the Solana blockchain network, per the release. Solana is a high-performance blockchain that offers faster settlement times and lower costs for sending and receiving stablecoins. With block times of 400 milliseconds and an average of 400 transactions per second (TPS), Solana can handle high demand during peak periods.

Visa began hiring in April for senior software engineers to help the company “drive mainstream adoption of public blockchain networks and stablecoin payments,” Sheffield said at the time. Visa’s job posting said: “The Visa crypto team is building the next generation of products to facilitate commerce in everyone’s digital and mobile lives.”

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