Earlier today on Tuesday, September 5, payments giant VISA announced that it’s expanding its USDC settlement pilot to the Solana blockchain network. VISA believes that Solana will help them achieve enterprise-grade throughput at virtually zero cost for all Visa issuers and merchant acquirers on Solana.
As per the press release, VISA is working with merchant acquirers Nuvei and Worldpay. Visa has conducted live pilot programs with issuers and acquirers, successfully transferring millions of USDC (USD Coin) across the Solana and Ethereum blockchain networks to settle fiat-denominated payments approved over VisaNet.
Thus, whenever consumers use their VISA card at any of the VISA-accepting merchant locations worldwide, they witness the convenience of instant payment authorizations. However, in the backend, the funds are yet to move between the customers’ bank and the merchant banks.
Here, the VISA Treasury and settlement systems enable the clearing, settlement, as well as the movement of billions in transactions on a daily basis. The company believes that by using blockchain platforms like Solana, it can reduce the settlement periods for cross-border payments. Speaking on the development, Cuy Sheffield, Head of Crypto, Visa said:
“By leveraging stablecoins like USDC and global blockchain networks like Solana and Ethereum, we’re helping to improve the speed of cross-border settlement and providing a modern option for our clients to easily send or receive funds from Visa’s treasury. Visa is committed to being on the forefront of digital currency and blockchain innovation and leveraging these new technologies to help improve the way we move money.”
VISA and Stablecoin Settlements
Payment giants VISA and Mastercard have been working to adopt the blockchain and stablecoin technology. At the beginning of 2023, Cuy Sheffield stated that VISA is building a “muscle memory” for stablecoins that would allow users to convert their crypto assets into fiat currencies.
Visa has been actively pursuing integration with Ethereum to enable seamless automatic payments. Additionally, the company is making substantial investments in global settlements involving both digital assets and traditional fiat currencies. This area is a focal point for Visa, aiming to establish expertise in converting not only between USD and Euros but also between conventional fiat currencies and tokenized equivalents such as stablecoins, building a strong foundation in this aspect.
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