Key points

  • Visa says stablecoin settlement recently exceeded a $20 billion annualized run rate, more than 15 times the year-earlier pace.
  • More than 160 stablecoin-linked card programs were live in Visa’s fiscal second quarter, with their payment volume up nearly 200% year over year.
  • Visa and Credit Coop are using settlement receivables and daily network data to support short-term funding for newer card programs.

Visa says stablecoin settlement across its network recently surpassed a $20 billion annualized run rate, more than 15 times the level a year earlier. The figure appeared in a Visa article updated on September 8 alongside new detail about how stablecoin-linked card issuers finance their daily settlement obligations.

The company also said more than 160 stablecoin-linked card programs were live worldwide during its fiscal second quarter and that payment volume on those programs grew nearly 200% year over year. The Block independently reported the same figures on September 8, describing the expansion as a working-capital challenge as well as a payments milestone.

Related reporting: Uzbekistan starts HUMO stablecoin payment pilot with government securities backing

An annualized pace, not a full-year total

An annualized run rate extrapolates a recent level of activity over 12 months; it is not the same as reporting $20 billion already settled during a completed year. Visa did not publish a breakdown by stablecoin, blockchain, card issuer or region in the September 8 article, so the composition of the reported volume remains unclear.

A footnote on Visa’s page attributes the run-rate figure to the company and says it was to be confirmed with Investor Relations ahead of publication. That qualification makes the number a company-reported measure rather than an independently audited total, and it should be read with that limitation.

The new figure nevertheless extends a documented sequence. In an April 29 press release, Visa reported a $7 billion annualized stablecoin settlement run rate, up 50% from the prior quarter, while expanding its pilot to nine blockchains. The release listed Arc, Base, Canton, Polygon and Tempo alongside earlier support for Avalanche, Ethereum, Solana and Stellar.

Why card issuers need short-term funding

Visa’s September article focuses on the gap between network settlement and collection from cardholders. Every card program must fund what it owes at settlement before it has received all corresponding customer payments, creating a temporary need for working capital.

Large, established portfolios often use warehouse credit lines or securitization. Visa says younger stablecoin-linked programs may need only a few million dollars, drawn and repaid on a daily cycle that continues through weekends and holidays, making the fixed cost of a traditional facility harder to justify.

Receivables become the collateral

Credit Coop, working with Visa, built a stablecoin-denominated revolving facility secured by settlement receivables. Visa says the arrangement combines authorized daily settlement files with a Spigot smart contract that directs incoming proceeds toward repayment before funds reach the borrower’s operating account.

Across the platform, Visa reports more than $2.5 billion in cumulative financing since 2023, over 3,000 borrowing events, more than 9,000 repayment events and no defaults. Rain, a Visa Principal Member, accounts for about $2 billion of financed settlement volume, according to the company’s case study.

Visa also says borrowing costs for participating programs have declined by as much as 30% as more lenders became comfortable underwriting the facilities. Those results are presented by Visa and rely partly on figures supplied by Credit Coop; they are not a general forecast for every stablecoin card issuer.

What the milestone does—and does not—show

CoinDesk highlighted the $20 billion run rate in its September 8 market coverage, while The Block connected the growth to the financing structure. Together with Visa’s primary disclosure, the reports show increasing use of stablecoins inside card-program settlement, but they do not establish that stablecoins are replacing conventional card payments.

The reported settlement flow sits behind consumer-facing programs rather than representing a simple count of purchases made directly on a public blockchain. The next useful disclosures would be the measurement period, asset and network mix, geographic distribution and a reconciliation between card payment volume and stablecoin settlement volume.

Sources

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