Visa's proof-of-concept with Brale's SBC stablecoin on Canton Network tests privacy-enabled settlement for institutions. Outcome could reshape stablecoin use in payments.
Visa has opened a proof-of-concept collaboration with stablecoin issuer Brale to run institutional payment settlement on a privacy-enabled blockchain. The initiative centers on Brale's SBC stablecoin, a U.S. dollar-backed token native to the Canton Network, a blockchain platform designed to restrict transaction visibility to authorized participants.
Visa said the test is a direct response to a persistent institutional objection to blockchain settlement: the public nature of most distributed ledgers. Banks and large payment firms have been reluctant to expose counterparty details, payment amounts, and timing on networks where every participant can see the full ledger. Canton's architecture limits that visibility, allowing transactions on shared infrastructure without broadcasting sensitive data.
Visa began enabling stablecoin settlement in 2021, allowing VisaNet obligations to be settled using supported stablecoins. The company has since expanded those capabilities. The Brale project adds a new variable: a stablecoin that does not force institutions onto a public ledger.
The test will evaluate whether SBC can serve as an additional stablecoin option for institutional settlement use cases. Because SBC is natively supported on Canton, the companies can test real-world payment flows using privacy-preserving infrastructure.
Cuy Sheffield, head of crypto at Visa, said stablecoin settlement "has shown how blockchain infrastructure can improve the speed and efficiency of money movement." He added that the project will help Visa assess how SBC on Canton supports institutional applications needing both programmability and privacy controls.
Most stablecoin activity today runs on Ethereum, Solana, or other public blockchains. Every transaction on those networks is visible to anyone with an internet connection. For a bank settling interbank payments or a payment firm processing merchant flows, that level of transparency creates competitive problems.
A public blockchain reveals the sending and receiving addresses, the amount, and the token contract. Competitors could infer counterparty relationships and payment volumes. Regulatory obligations around data privacy also become harder to satisfy.
The Canton Network directly addresses that friction. It is not a public chain. Participation is permissioned, and transaction data is shared only with counterparties who need to see it. For Visa, which settles trillions of dollars in payments annually, that architecture is closer to existing clearing systems than to open crypto rails.
Ben Milne, founder and CEO of Brale, said financial institutions are increasingly seeking stablecoin infrastructure that matches their operational, regulatory, and privacy requirements. "Working with Visa to explore SBC on Canton is an important step toward making stablecoin-based settlement more practical and scalable for real-world payment flows."
SBC is a U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin issued by Brale. Its native support on Canton means the token inherits the network's privacy model at the protocol level. That is different from wrapping a public-chain stablecoin into a private layer, which adds complexity and trust assumptions.
Visa will test whether SBC can handle the settlement demands of institutional payment flows, including speed, finality, and auditability. The proof-of-concept will run real payment flows between the two companies to validate the infrastructure.
This event is not a direct tradeable catalyst. It does carry implications for several segments of the crypto and payments ecosystem.
The project remains a proof of concept. It does not guarantee that Visa will adopt SBC or Canton for production settlement. The outcome depends on whether the test meets Visa's standards for interoperability, compliance, and privacy.
Factors that would confirm the thesis:
Factors that would weaken the thesis:
Visa's continued investment in stablecoin settlement, including this test, suggests the company views private blockchain infrastructure as a scalable next-generation settlement technology. The question is whether the privacy and compliance features can scale across Visa's global network of 15,000 financial institutions without sacrificing the speed and cost advantages of public chains.
Visa and Brale have not set a public timeline for completion of the proof-of-concept. Market participants should watch for:
The test does not change the near-term landscape for crypto trading or DeFi yields. It does provide a concrete data point for institutional allocators evaluating whether stablecoins can replace traditional correspondent banking rails for high-value, time-sensitive payments.
Key insight: The real contest is not public blockchain vs. private blockchain. It is whether a privacy-first settlement layer can replicate the liquidity depth of USDC or USDT while satisfying bank compliance teams. This proof-of-concept is one of the first direct stress tests of that trade-off.
For more on how these infrastructure shifts affect crypto markets, see our crypto market analysis.
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.