Visa has announced an expansion of its stablecoin pilot, with the payment processing giant adding Arc, Polygon and three other blockchains.
Visa added five new blockchains to its Stablecoin pilot
As revealed in a press release, Visa has expanded its global stablecoin settlement pilot with five new blockchains. The pilot allows issuers and acquirers to settle payments in stablecoins rather than traditional banking rails.
Stablecoins are digital assets linked to fiat currency. Since these tokens run on the blockchain, they have all the benefits enabled by the technology, including fast and cheap settlements. This fact made them popular as a payment method, especially in the cross-border case, and attracted the attention of giants like Visa.
The card payment company noted:
Over the past year, stablecoins have evolved from a promising innovation to a convenient way to move money globally, and Visa’s settlement pilots are helping partners streamline their operations.
These fiat cryptocurrencies are available on a range of blockchains. Previously, Visa’s pilot included four such networks: Ethereum, Solana, Avalanche and Stellar. With the new expansion, Arc, Base, Canton, Polygon and Tempo are also part of the company’s program.
Rubail Birwadker, Global Head of Growth Products and Strategic Partnerships at Visa, said:
Expanding our stable settlement pilot program to more blockchains means our partners can choose the networks that best meet their needs, while relying on Visa to provide a common settlement layer for all.
In the press release, Visa also shared an update on how the pilot project is progressing in terms of numbers. Compared to last quarter, the annualized settlement rate increased by 50%, reaching the $7 billion mark. Visa’s rise into stablecoins comes as this digital asset class is experiencing regulatory momentum around the world, with perhaps the most significant development being the signing of the GENIUS Act in the United States.
Global adoption has given resilience to the sector amid a slowdown in the broader cryptocurrency market, with the total market capitalization associated with fiat-pegged tokens even reaching a new all-time high in mid-April, according to data from DefiLlama.
How the stablecoin market cap has changed over the last few years | Source: DefiLlama
The chart shows that the stablecoin market capitalization has been on a slight upward trend since October. During the same period, Bitcoin fell by around 40%. Currently, the stables’ total valuation stands at around $319.8 billion, just $1.5 billion short of the record.
Bitcoin Price
At the time of writing, Bitcoin is floating around $76,000, down 1.8% over the past seven days.
The price of the coin seems to have gone down recently | Source: BTCUSDT on TradingView
Featured image of Dall-E, chart from TradingView.com
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