Visa expands stablecoin settlement to more blockchains and regions, launches AI tools for agentic commerce. Tokenized deposits let banks issue programmable money.
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Visa rolled out new AI and stablecoin tools at its Payments Forum 2026 on Wednesday. The company also unveiled token initiatives designed to support what it calls "agentic commerce" – automated, AI-driven transactions.
"AI is transforming the front end of commerce. Stablecoins are reshaping the back end," Jack Forestell, Visa's chief product and strategy officer, said in a keynote. "Visa's role is to enable it to work securely, reliably and at global scale, for every participant in the ecosystem."
The AI offerings include Agent Score, which lets merchants assess how ready their websites are for agent-driven shopping. Agentic Directory works as a verification layer for agents and merchants. Visa also introduced a Large Transaction Model trained to catch fraud and boost authorization rates. A partnership with OpenAI will let AI agents make secure Visa payments within OpenAI's ecosystem.
"As AI agents become active participants in the economy, Visa's focus is to ensure transactions are trusted, secure and seamless. That's the infrastructure we're building with partners like OpenAI," Forestell said.
On the token side, Visa is enriching the data carried by payment tokens – adding details about transaction type and payer identity. A new token assurance signal is meant to convey trust for each transaction.
The stablecoin and blockchain push is the piece most relevant for crypto traders. Visa said it is expanding stablecoin settlement pilots to include more regions and blockchains. It is also working on tokenized deposits that let banks convert traditional deposits into programmable, always-on digital money. And it is broadening the range of stablecoin-linked cards it supports.
The stablecoin settlement expansion means Visa's network can settle transactions using blockchain-based stablecoins across a wider set of corridors. That reduces the need for traditional correspondent banking for cross-border payments. Tokenized deposits, meanwhile, give banks a way to issue digital money that can move on Visa's rails without relying on third-party stablecoins.
"History is filled with innovations that never reached scale," Forestell said. "What determines success is trust, security and global reach. That's what Visa brings to every new era of commerce."
The initiatives position Visa as a bridge between traditional payments and the crypto ecosystem. The stablecoin settlement pilots now cover additional regions and blockchains, Visa said. No timeline for a broader rollout was given.
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