Visa’s stablecoin settlement volume surges past $20 billion, up 15-fold in a year

Visa disclosed Sept. 8 that more than 160 stablecoin-linked card programs were live globally in its fiscal second quarter of 2026, with payment volume on those programs up nearly 200% year over year, a sign the payments giant’s stablecoin push has moved well past the pilot stage.

The development marks another step in Visa’s effort to connect dollar-denominated digital assets with conventional payments infrastructure, allowing consumers and businesses to spend stablecoins without requiring merchants to fundamentally change how they accept payments.

Visa’s stablecoin card push accelerates

A stablecoin card connects a user’s crypto wallet or stablecoin balance to Visa’s payment network. Depending on the product, digital assets can fund a transaction while the merchant continues to receive payment through established card infrastructure.

Visa CEO Ryan McInerney highlighted the growing demand for the product earlier this year, explaining that users can move money into stablecoins and spend through a Visa card at everyday merchants. He said Visa had reached roughly 150 to 160 programs and that the segment was “growing very quickly.”

The latest figures show that momentum has continued. Visa reported that payment volume across its stablecoin-linked card programs increased nearly 200% from the previous year during fiscal second-quarter 2026.

That figure, however, should not be confused with the company’s $20 billion settlement run rate. Card payment volume represents purchases made through participating programs, while settlement volume concerns funds moving between Visa and participating financial institutions or program operators.

Visa has not disclosed the dollar value behind the nearly 200% payment-volume increase in its latest announcement. It also did not provide a detailed regional breakdown or transaction count. The figures should therefore be viewed as Visa-reported network metrics rather than independently audited market-wide statistics.

Credit coop tackles the working-capital problem

The rapid growth of stablecoin-linked cards creates a familiar payments challenge: issuers have to fund settlement obligations before receiving all of the corresponding money from customers.

That issue can be particularly difficult for newer programs. Many operate seven days a week, including weekends and holidays, but may require only a few million dollars in working capital. Traditional warehouse financing and securitization can be inefficient at that scale.

Visa and Credit Coop are attempting to solve the problem through a stablecoin-denominated revolving credit facility secured by settlement receivables.

The structure uses Visa’s settlement data to determine funding requirements, while Credit Coop’s Spigot smart contract automates repayment from incoming receivables. Visa describes the arrangement as a programmable version of a conventional lockbox structure.

Visa said borrowing costs for participating programs have fallen by as much as 30% as more lenders become comfortable with the financing structure.

The company said some early-stage programs are constrained “less by demand or by network infrastructure than by access to working capital structured for how they operate day to day.”

That financing layer could become increasingly important as adoption grows. Strong customer demand alone is not enough if issuers cannot reliably finance daily settlement obligations.

Rain and Karta put the model to the test

Rain, a Visa Principal Member supporting stablecoin-linked payment programs, has used Credit Coop financing for its daily Visa settlement requirements since August 2023.

According to Visa, Rain has financed approximately $2 billion through the facility, with more than 2,000 borrowing events and over 7,000 repayment events executed onchain. Credit Coop says the settlement obligations covered by the facility have been funded on time.

Across its platform, Credit Coop reports more than $2.5 billion in cumulative financing since 2023, alongside more than 3,000 borrowing events and 9,000 repayment events. The company also reports zero defaults.

Those performance figures, however, are company-reported metrics. They have not been presented as the findings of an independent audit, meaning the zero-default figure should not be interpreted as a guarantee of future performance.

Karta provides another example of the financing model. The U.S.-issued premium Visa card launched and scaled using Credit Coop financing before announcing $140 million in financing in June 2026. The package included a $15 million Series A led by Galaxy Ventures and a $125 million institutional credit facility from Community Investment Management.

The progression matters because it points toward a potential new financing pipeline: emerging card programs can build repayment histories through onchain infrastructure before graduating to larger institutional credit facilities.

Visa moves toward just-in-time funding

Visa’s stablecoin strategy extends well beyond cards. In April, the company said its stablecoin settlement pilot had reached a $7 billion annualized run rate and expanded to nine blockchains after adding five networks.

By September, Visa said the annualized settlement figure had exceeded $20 billion. The distinction is important: an annualized run rate projects recent activity across a full year and does not mean Visa has already processed $20 billion in stablecoin settlement during 2026.

The company is now working with Credit Coop on a just-in-time funding model. Instead of drawing a large credit facility and holding unused capital, a daily settlement file could trigger a stablecoin payment matching the precise amount owed.

Visa says the model could reduce borrowing periods from days to hours while allowing lenders to match their exposure more closely with actual settlement requirements.

The strategy reflects a broader shift in Visa’s approach to digital assets. Rather than treating stablecoins simply as another cryptocurrency payment option, the company is building infrastructure around them for cards, settlement and programmable money.

Jack Forestell, Visa’s chief product and strategy officer, has described stablecoins as a new layer of programmable money, while emphasizing that the difficult part for institutions is putting the operational infrastructure in place.

The next challenge will be scaling without sacrificing liquidity, security or regulatory compliance. Stablecoin depegging, smart-contract vulnerabilities, borrower failures and changing regulations remain material risks.

For Visa, the opportunity is therefore larger than simply adding more cards. The company is building the settlement and financing infrastructure that could allow hundreds of digital-asset payment programs to operate continuously on a global network.

With more than 160 programs already live and payment volume climbing nearly 200%, the stablecoin card market is increasingly becoming a measurable part of Visa’s payments strategy rather than a peripheral crypto experiment.