Visa Launches Platform for Banks to Mint Stablecoins

Visa has started letting financial institutions mint, store and redeem stablecoins through a single platform it operates, the company said Tuesday. The Visa Stablecoin Platform, or VSP, gives banks and payment providers digital wallets, stablecoin storage and redemption, plus connectivity to mint and burn tokens. The initial asset is Open USD, a dollar-backed stablecoin from the Open Standard consortium, where Visa is a founding participant.

“Stablecoins are opening up a new layer of programmable money, for most institutions the hard part is the operational reality,” Chief Product and Strategy Officer Jack Forestell said in the announcement. He added that the platform would give clients one place to mint, move and manage stablecoins using the controls, security and network reach they already expect from Visa.

The platform is not a consumer wallet. It targets Visa’s network of roughly 15,000 financial institutions and payment providers, letting them build stablecoin-powered products on top of their existing treasury, settlement and money-movement systems. Merchants would not need to accept digital assets directly. Stablecoin balances could be converted and settled through Visa’s infrastructure, the company said.

That model addresses a persistent obstacle. Cuy Sheffield, Visa’s head of crypto, said earlier this year that stablecoins still lacked merchant acceptance at scale, making integration with existing payment networks crucial for everyday use.

VSP includes a Wallet-as-a-Service product and the connectivity required to mint and redeem Open USD. Visa said the new stablecoin would complement, rather than replace, other assets in its ecosystem, including Circle’s USDC and Paxos-backed USDG.

Visa has been expanding its stablecoin settlement infrastructure. In April, it added five blockchain networks to its global settlement pilot, bringing the total supported to nine. The company said its stablecoin settlement activity had reached an annualized run rate of roughly $7 billion, up 50% from the previous quarter. That remains small compared with the $15 trillion in payments Visa settles annually, the company noted.

Visa has also developed more than 160 stablecoin-linked card programs that are operational or in development, allowing users to spend stablecoin balances through Visa credentials while merchants receive conventional currency. The company is simultaneously working on technology that would let banks tokenize traditional deposits, providing continuous settlement and programmability while keeping funds on bank balance sheets.

The launch reflects competition among major payment firms. Mastercard has expanded its own stablecoin settlement services and formed partnerships with wallet providers, issuers and blockchain companies. Mastercard carries an Alpha Score of 67 out of 100 from AlphaScala, a Moderate rating in the Financials sector.

Stablecoins are sometimes presented as a way to bypass card networks entirely. Visa’s strategy suggests a different path. Blockchain settlement may become another layer inside the existing payments industry rather than replacing it. The company is betting that banks and fintechs will still need a trusted network to make digital money useful at global scale.

Visa’s push into stablecoin infrastructure aligns with broader industry moves. Visa, BlackRock Stablecoin Push Tops Crypto KOL Sentiment earlier this year, signaling growing institutional interest in programmable money on existing rails. The Visa Stablecoin Platform gives the company a direct role at wallet infrastructure, token issuance and redemption, institutional settlement and merchant connectivity.

“We’re giving them one place to mint, move and manage stablecoins using the controls, security and network reach they already expect from Visa,” Forestell said.