Visa on September 5 announced the next steps in modernizing cross-border money transfers by expanding its stablecoin settlement capabilities to the Solana blockchain.
In addition, Visa is working directly with merchants Worldpay and Nuvei to improve the efficiency and speed of settlement processes for merchants worldwide, helping to optimize the often unseen process of transferring money between banks – specifically from the issuer’s bank to the bank of the acquirer.
As the global leader in digital payments, Visa facilitates transactions in more than 200 countries and territories – from consumers, merchants, financial institutions and government agencies.
Using Visa’s own Circle account, the company can now manage these USDC payouts to Worldpay and Nuvei, who can then immediately send those payouts in USDC to their end merchants. Solana’s blockchain processes an average of 400 transactions per second (TPS), while rising to over 2,000 TPS during peak periods in various usage scenarios.
“By leveraging stablecoins such as USDC and global blockchain networks such as Solana and Ethereum, we help improve the speed of cross-border settlement and provide our customers with a modern option to easily send or receive money from the Visa Treasury” said Cuy Sheffield. , Head of Crypto, Visa.
Two-year pilot program
This announcement comes after a successful two-year pilot program with Crypto.com, which saw Visa act as one of the first major payment networks to test settlement of stablecoins on the issue side.
When the pilot first launched in 2021, Visa began testing how to use USDC within its treasury operations through its live card program in Australia, allowing it to receive payments from Crypto.com using USDC and the Ethereum Blockchain. This effectively shortened the time Visa cards were previously required, which required a “day-long currency conversion process” and costly international wire transfers.
Crypto.com is now using USDC to meet its Visa card settlement obligations in the Australian market, with plans to further roll out this capability in other markets.
“Circle built USDC to provide a functional digital dollar that can move at the speed of the internet to enable secure, reliable payments. Expanding the pilot illustrates how combining USDC with Visa innovation opens up the future of payments, commerce and financial applications.”
Jeremy Allaire, Circle co-founder and CEO.
Cuy Sheffield, Head of Crypto at Visa, highlighted the company’s commitment to leveraging advanced technologies such as stablecoins and blockchain networks to improve the speed and efficiency of cross-border settlements.
“Visa aims to be at the forefront of digital currency and blockchain innovation and leverage these emerging technologies to help improve the way we move money,” Sheffield said in the press release.
Similarly, Philip Fayer, Chairman and CEO of Nuvei, highlighted the wide range of uses for stablecoins such as USDC, stating that they have the potential to accelerate the growth of online businesses worldwide. He sees stablecoins as “an advanced payment technology that can optimize cross-border transactions and drive innovation across industries.”
By supporting Solana, Visa positions itself as one of the first major payments companies to use the network directly for live settlement payments between its customers.
“Visa’s USDC settlement capabilities allow Worldpay to bring more of our treasury operations in-house and give merchants more choices for receiving money,” said Jim Johnson, president of Worldpay Merchant Solutions, FIS.
Fayer also shared his belief that “[o]Optimizing cross-border transactions is just one use case where stablecoins can benefit businesses.”
Editor’s note: This article was written by a staff member of nft now in collaboration with OpenAI’s GPT-3.