Visa's annualized stablecoin settlement rate passes $25 billion, up roughly tenfold

Visa CEO Ryan McInerney told analysts on Tuesday that Visa's annualized stablecoin settlement run rate exceeded $25 billion, approximately ten times the year-earlier level. The run rate extrapolates recent transaction volume over 12 months. The analyst call did not connect that measure to Visa's forecast for low double-digit revenue growth in fiscal 2027.

Visa now supports settlement using five stablecoins, leaving the issuers competing for the expanding channel. The supported tokens are USD Coin (USDC), Global Dollar (USDG), Circle's euro-backed Euro Coin (EURC), PayPal USD (PYUSD), and Brale's dollar stablecoin SBC. Stablecoin settlement operates across 10 blockchains, more than twice the number a year earlier. Settlement is the process through which card issuers and acquirers pay amounts owed to each other.

McInerney said Visa's policy does not favor particular stablecoins or blockchains. However, Visa also belongs to the Open USD consortium, which competes with USDC. The consortium's Open USD (OUSD) token is connected to Visa's Flex Credential payment product. OUSD circulation exceeded $800 million as of October 15. McInerney said Visa will incorporate OUSD into other products, including the real-time money movement platform Visa Direct. Which issuers will receive the settlement volume remains an open question.

Visa has more than 225 card programs linked to stablecoins, an increase of over 70% from a year earlier. Spending using roughly 5 million stablecoin-linked cards increased by more than 150% across over 50 countries. The Visa Stablecoin Platform enables the launch of stablecoin-based products and operates in six markets, including the United States, Mexico and the United Kingdom. Visa management cited more than 300 prospective partners.

Visa is seeking to serve banks' demand for stablecoins. The pattern suggests that competition among tokens may occur within Visa's network rather than outside the network. That interpretation would become less convincing if banks and issuers started settling directly onchain without an intervening card network.