Payments giants Visa, Mastercard, and Stripe are backing a shared stablecoin platform. With $320B in stablecoin market cap, the shift from pilots to scaled infrastructure is underway.
Three of the largest payments companies are building a shared stablecoin settlement network. Visa, Mastercard, and Stripe are reportedly backing a new platform designed for faster, cheaper cross-border settlement, according to a Coindesk report by Ian Allison citing three people familiar with the plans. Coinbase is also exploring participation. The platform has not been officially announced and carries no confirmed name.
The report arrives as Mastercard separately expands its global settlement network to include six new partners across USDC, RLUSD, and PYUSD. That move signals the company is building stablecoin reach on multiple fronts simultaneously. The total stablecoin market cap stands near $320 billion, with Tether's USDT at roughly $187.81 billion and USDC at approximately $76 billion, according to defillama.com stats. Transaction volumes across the sector have climbed as more institutions and consumers treat stablecoins as a working payments layer rather than a speculative asset.
The clearest active collaboration between these firms is the Visa-Bridge stablecoin card issuing program. Bridge, acquired by Stripe in February 2025 for approximately $1.1 billion, provides the stablecoin orchestration layer. Fintechs and wallets use a single Bridge API to issue branded stablecoin-backed Visa cards, letting cardholders spend USDC balances at any of Visa's 175 million-plus merchant locations worldwide.
As of March 2026, the program is live in 18 countries, with a focus on Latin America, including Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, and Chile. Visa and Bridge plan to expand to more than 100 countries across Europe, Asia Pacific, Africa, and the Middle East by year-end.
Wallets including Phantom and Metamask, along with fintechs like Ramp and Airtm, are among the participants using the infrastructure.
Visa's broader stablecoin settlement pilot has grown to approximately $7 billion in annualized volume and now spans nine blockchains, including Base, Polygon, Solana, and Ethereum. The company also operates the Visa Stablecoin Platform for minting, burning, and transacting stablecoins with enterprise-level performance.
Recently, Visa took a strategic stake in Replit while simultaneously exploring tokenization initiatives alongside the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), several central banks, JPMorgan, UBS Group, Deutsche Bank, and Mastercard.
On March 17, 2026, Mastercard announced a definitive agreement to acquire BVNK, a London-based stablecoin infrastructure company, for up to $1.8 billion, including $300 million in contingent payments. The deal is expected to close by year-end pending regulatory approvals.
BVNK's platform operates across 130-plus countries and is intended to connect onchain stablecoin payments with Mastercard's global fiat rails, supporting cross-border payments, remittances, B2B transactions, and 24/7 settlement. Mastercard has also partnered with OKX, Nuvei, and Thunes for stablecoin transactions and payout capabilities.
AlphaScala's proprietary score for Mastercard (ticker: MA) stands at 61 out of 100, labeled Moderate, within the Financials sector. The score reflects the company's strong cash flows and dominant network effects, offset by execution risk in the stablecoin pivot and potential regulatory friction. Full analysis is available on the MA stock page.
Beyond the Visa card program, Stripe is using Bridge to power its Open Issuance platform, which lets businesses launch and manage their own stablecoins. Stripe has expanded stablecoin support across dozens of countries for payment acceptance, payouts, and money management accounts.
The shared platform reportedly under discussion would bring these three companies together to expand stablecoin settlement networks. A more favorable U.S. regulatory environment and the growing overlap between stablecoins and artificial intelligence (AI)-driven commerce are pushing traditional payments firms to move from pilots to scaled infrastructure.
The shared platform operates in a regulatory gray area. While the U.S. has become more accommodating under the current administration, stablecoin legislation remains fragmented across states and internationally. A sudden shift in policy – such as stricter capital requirements or a ban on algorithmic stablecoins – could force the platform to restructure or halt operations. The Lummis vs Dimon: Crypto Regulation Clash Escalates article outlines the ongoing tension between pro-crypto lawmakers and traditional banking voices.
Integrating three separate payment networks with a shared stablecoin layer introduces complexity. Settlement finality, fraud prevention, and anti-money laundering compliance must work across multiple blockchains and fiat rails. Any technical failure – a smart contract bug, a blockchain congestion event, or a wallet exploit – could freeze funds and damage trust. The Visa-Bridge program alone spans nine blockchains, each with different security assumptions.
The platform could accelerate the displacement of traditional correspondent banking and SWIFT-based settlement. That threatens revenue for banks and legacy payment processors. It also puts Visa, Mastercard, and Stripe in direct competition with each other on pricing and features, potentially compressing margins. If one partner gains an edge (e.g., Mastercard's BVNK integration versus Visa's Bridge program), the shared platform could fracture.
The shared platform has not been officially announced. The next concrete catalyst is a public confirmation from Visa, Mastercard, or Stripe, along with details on governance, blockchain selection, and launch timeline. Until then, the market should watch the existing programs:
If the shared platform materializes, it would represent the most significant institutional endorsement of stablecoins as a payments infrastructure. If it stalls, the individual efforts of each company remain intact but lose the network effect that a joint platform would provide.
For traders and analysts tracking the crypto payments sector, the key metrics are stablecoin market cap growth, transaction volume on Visa's settlement pilot, and regulatory developments in the U.S. and EU. The best crypto brokers list provides platforms that offer exposure to stablecoin-related assets and payment tokens.
The shift from pilots to scaled infrastructure is underway. The question is whether the three giants can collaborate effectively – or whether their individual ambitions will pull the shared platform apart before it launches.
Prepared with AlphaScala research tooling and grounded in primary market data: live prices, fundamentals, SEC filings, hedge-fund holdings, and insider activity. Each story is checked against AlphaScala publishing rules before release. Educational coverage, not personalized advice.