Visa's Annual Stablecoin Settlement Hits $25 Billion, Up 10x

On Tuesday, during an earnings call, Visa CEO Ryan McInerney told analysts that the company's annualized stablecoin settlement run rate has surpassed $25 billion, roughly 10x its level a year earlier. The payment network now uses five stablecoins for settlements and maintains it favors none, leaving open which issuers will capture the growing volume.

The figure is an annualized run rate based on recent transaction volumes, and the call did not connect it to Visa's fiscal 2027 outlook of low double-digit revenue growth. Issuers of the five supported tokens, including USD Coin (USDC) and PayPal USD (PYUSD), are now competing for a settlement channel that has expanded about 10x in a year.

Does Visa's Open USD Backing Conflict With Its Stablecoin Neutrality?

Settlement—the process where card issuers and acquirers pay each other—now operates on 10 blockchains, more than twice as many as a year ago. The supported stablecoins are USDC, Global Dollar (USDG), Circle's euro-backed Euro Coin (EURC), PYUSD, and SBC, a dollar stablecoin issued by Brale.

When asked how Visa would treat different tokens, McInerney presented neutrality as official policy.

“we are stablecoin agnostic. We are blockchain agnostic.”

— Ryan McInerney, Visa

Visa is also a member of the Open USD consortium, a rival to USDC. Its Open USD (OUSD) token, linked to Visa's Flex Credential payment product, had more than $800 million in circulation as of Oct. 15.

McInerney said OUSD will be integrated into other Visa products, including Visa Direct, the company's real-time money movement platform.

Which Stablecoin Issuers Benefit If Card Networks Become the Gateway?

Beyond settlement, Visa reports over 225 stablecoin-linked card programs, up more than 70% year-over-year. Transactions on roughly 5 million of those cards grew over 150% across more than 50 countries.

The Visa Stablecoin Platform, a service for issuing stablecoin-based offerings, is live in six markets including the U.S., Mexico, and the U.K. Management cited a pipeline of over 300 partners.

Visa is positioning itself as the gateway for bank demand for stablecoins, and the trend suggests token competition may take place on its network rather than outside it. That view would lose strength if banks and issuers begin settling directly on a blockchain without a card network intermediary.