Visa stablecoin card payments up nearly 200% year over year

Visa reported on Oct. 1 that payment volume across its stablecoin-linked card programs grew nearly 200% year over year, with more than 160 consumer and business programs now running on its network. The company did not disclose the total dollar value behind that growth figure, and the disclosure separates payment volume on cards from Visa’s stablecoin settlement activity, which measures a different part of the network.

As Crypto.news reported, the figures come from VisaNet data and Visa’s internal classifications for business and commercial cards. Visa first disclosed the 160-program figure for its fiscal second quarter and repeated it in the latest business-payments update. PANews also covered the disclosure, reporting that stablecoins are increasingly becoming part of enterprise financial infrastructure for settlement, treasury management, payroll and cross-border trade.

What Visa disclosed — and what it left out

The nearly 200% growth figure applies to payment volume, not settlement. Visa has described its $20 billion stablecoin settlement number as an annualized run rate, which converts recent activity into a full-year pace rather than confirming that $20 billion was settled during fiscal 2026. The company did not break out the previous fiscal year’s share for business and commercial programs, so the 17% figure has no like-for-like comparison.

Visa’s stablecoin-linked cards let customers spend value held in stablecoins while using existing Visa payment infrastructure. Depending on the program, digital assets can fund a card balance or support settlement behind the transaction, while merchants continue to receive payment through normal card rails.

Where the money is moving, according to Allium

Crypto.news cited research from Allium to show how commercial stablecoin payments extend well beyond card programs. Allium estimated total stablecoin transfers at $85 trillion from January through August, but classified only $4 trillion as economic activity after stripping out internal transfers, routing activity and bots.

Within that adjusted figure, trading remained the largest category at 69%, store-of-value transfers represented 13%, and payments accounted for as much as 13%. Business-to-business transactions formed the largest payment lane at an estimated $137 billion to $153 billion, ahead of service-fee payments at $56 billion, payroll at $43 billion and supplier payments at $28 billion. Consumer retail purchases totaled about $19 billion.

PANews noted that Allium’s data confirms payments are the fastest-growing stablecoin use case, with B2B transfers accounting for 43% of cross-border transactions — the highest cross-border share among the categories studied. Allium’s figures are research estimates built from blockchain data and transaction classifications, not Visa totals, and Visa’s 17% commercial-card share should not be compared directly with them.

The settlement and payout tools behind the numbers

Visa has spent the past year building out infrastructure around these figures. In July, it introduced the Visa Stablecoin Platform, an enterprise product for banks, fintechs and crypto businesses that initially supports Open USD and provides tools for holding, transferring, minting and redeeming stablecoins in a Visa-managed environment, with access limited to selected participants during the initial rollout.

In September, Visa introduced another model using onchain lending infrastructure from Credit Coop, so participating card programs can borrow stablecoins against daily settlement obligations. Credit Coop said it had financed $2.5 billion cumulatively since 2023 across more than 3,000 borrowing events, and Visa said the system helped some programs cut borrowing costs by as much as 30%, though individual rates were not disclosed.

Mark Nelsen, Visa’s global head of product, commercial and money movement solutions, said companies are increasingly weighing stablecoins for supplier payments, treasury operations and cross-border commerce. He characterized the shift as businesses wanting trusted, reliable ways to move money rather than new payment technology for its own sake.

Why it matters

The 17% commercial share is the clearest signal yet that stablecoin spending is spreading beyond crypto trading desks and retail users into routine corporate payment flows. If that trend holds, the competitive question shifts from whether businesses will use stablecoins to which settlement and payout rails they use to do it. It also puts card networks, processors and stablecoin issuers on a path toward overlapping business models rather than separate ones.

What to watch

Visa has not announced a launch date for a settlement system that would let daily settlement files trigger a stablecoin loan matching the exact amount a card program owes. The other near-term marker is the Bridge-powered card rollout: Visa and Bridge said in March they planned to expand from 18 countries to more than 100 by the end of 2026, and merchants in those markets can be reached today at more than 175 million locations, per Visa.

Sources: crypto.news, PANews