Visa is taking bids for a settlement partner holding crypto exchange licenses in the U.S., Canada, UK and Singapore after Mastercard bought BVNK, CoinDesk reports.
Visa is looking for a new stablecoin settlement partner after Mastercard completed its purchase of BVNK, the London-based firm Visa had been working with, CoinDesk reported Tuesday.
Visa is taking bids for one settlement partner and one over-the-counter partner, both holding crypto exchange licenses in the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and Singapore, according to documents CoinDesk reviewed. The request includes the ability to swap and support a range of stablecoins, as well as settlement for Open USD, the token Visa named as the first asset on its Visa Stablecoin Platform launched July 16.
Visa built the platform as an enterprise product, handling wallet infrastructure, token minting and burning, dual-control approvals, and audit logging for banks and fintechs that want to issue or move stablecoins without building the stack themselves.
Mastercard completed its acquisition of BVNK on Aug. 3. Visa's own history with BVNK goes back to May 2025, when Visa Ventures invested in it. BVNK said at the time it was processing $12 billion in annualized stablecoin payment volume.
Open USD complicates the rivalry. Visa, Mastercard and Stripe all back the same consortium behind the token. The two card networks are competing on infrastructure while sharing the currency that runs over it.
Licenses across four jurisdictions narrow the field. Visa has not said who is in the running and declined to comment to CoinDesk.
“Stablecoins are opening up a new layer of programmable money, for most institutions the hard part isn’t the concept, it’s the operational reality,” Jack Forestell, Visa’s chief product and strategy officer, said in the release announcing the platform.
That operational reality is now Visa’s own problem. The platform opened in beta with a small set of clients, so the gap is not yet holding back live volume. Whoever wins the mandate inherits Visa’s institutional flow for Open USD.
Visa's MA stock page carries an Alpha Score of 68, reflecting moderate sentiment. The company's stablecoin push comes as Mastercard tests single-audit compliance with Borderless.xyz, another sign the card networks are moving deeper into crypto infrastructure.
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