In a major push to integrate digital assets into mainstream finance, global payment giant Visa has announced a dramatic expansion of its stablecoin-linked card service in partnership with Stripe-owned infrastructure provider Bridge. The plan is to extend the service to over 100 countries across Europe, Asia-Pacific, Africa, and the Middle East by the end of the year.
The program, which initially launched in April 2025 in several Latin American countries, will now undergo a massive global rollout. This expansion is coupled with a significant technological upgrade: the companies are testing onchain stablecoin settlement through Visa's pilot program. Enabled by a partnership with independent commercial bank Lead Bank, this allows issuers and acquirers to settle transactions directly using stablecoins on the blockchain, rather than converting to fiat currency first.
"Visa is committed to meeting businesses where they operate, and increasingly, that's onchain," said Cuy Sheffield, Visa's head of crypto. "Expanding our work with Bridge gives us one more way to bring the speed, transparency and programmability of stablecoins directly into the settlement process."
Furthermore, Visa is evaluating support for Bridge-issued assets—stablecoins created programmatically by businesses using Bridge's infrastructure, as opposed to third-party-issued tokens like USDT or USDC. "This expansion of our work with Visa will enable businesses launching their own custom stablecoins to use them seamlessly within their card programs," stated Bridge co-founder and CEO Zach Abrams.
The move intensifies the stablecoin race in payments, coming shortly after Mastercard enabled stablecoin card spending in the U.S. via the MetaMask wallet. Visa's strategy focuses on leveraging its vast merchant network to turn millions of existing terminals into crypto-on-ramps, significantly lowering the barrier for everyday crypto spending.
