Visa is building infrastructure that it believes financial institutions will require to bring stablecoins into everyday operations.
Visa has targeted the challenge of integrating digital assets into existing financial operations, an area it believes is a barrier to stablecoin adoption.
The payments giant’s latest development in the space is the Visa Stablecoin Platform (VSP), which aims to help financial institutions, fintechs and payment providers mint, manage and move stablecoins through a single environment.
Jack Forestell, Chief Product and Strategy Officer at Visa, said interest in stablecoins continues to grow, but the challenge for many organisations is turning that interest into practical applications.
“Stablecoins are opening up a new layer of programmable money, but for most institutions the hard part isn’t the concept, it’s the operational reality,” said Forestell.
Visa has made stablecoins a growing part of its strategy, introducing capabilities around settlement, stablecoin-linked cards and money movement. The company said it now supports more than 160 stablecoin card programmes, with payment volume through those products increasing nearly 200% year-on-year in Q1 2026.
Although many institutions are still waiting for stablecoin regulations to become clearer in markets such as the US and UK, the payments giant has moved ahead with building the infrastructure it believes will be required as adoption develops.
What is the Visa Stablecoin Platform?
Visa’s new platform brings several stablecoin capabilities into a single environment, beginning with support for Open USD (OUSD), a stablecoin recently introduced by Open Standard.
Through VSP, institutions can mint, redeem, hold and transfer stablecoins while also accessing newly introduced Wallet-as-a-Service capabilities. Clients can either onboard into the company’s managed wallet infrastructure or connect existing wallets to oversee stablecoin activity.
The platform also includes governance and security features designed for institutional use, including dual-control approvals, audit logging, secure passkeys and allow lists to help organisations control who can initiate and approve transactions.
Visa has loaded VSP with its existing settlement, treasury and currency services, allowing clients to incorporate stablecoins into payment flows and liquidity management processes without replacing existing systems.
The platform is initially available to select clients through a beta programme, with Visa saying customer feedback will support a wider launch.
“With the Visa Stablecoin Platform, we’re giving our clients a single place to mint, move and manage stablecoin operations with the controls, security and network reach they already expect from Visa,” said Forestell.
“It’s how we help them turn interest in stablecoins into real products and real payment flows.”
Regulatory clarity is coming
Visa is building the infrastructure for a market it expects to develop as regulatory frameworks around stablecoins mature. However, wider institutional adoption will depend on the rules across financial markets.
Europe has taken pole position ahead of other markets through the launch of the Markets in Crypto-Assets framework earlier this month, which introduced rules for stablecoin issuers operating in the region.
In the US, lawmakers have passed the GENIUS Act, creating a federal framework for payment stablecoins, although further regulatory details around implementation are still being worked out.
The UK has also recently published a roadmap for its stablecoin regime, with legislation expected to progress in the coming year.
The next challenge will be ensuring these different regulatory approaches can work together. On 14 July, the US Department of the Treasury and HM Treasury published a joint statement on stablecoins, which included recommendations from the Transatlantic Taskforce for Markets of the Future.
