Global payments giant Visa plans to roll out support for four stablecoins across four “proprietary blockchains” as it strengthens its cryptocurrency services.
Visa CEO Ryan McInerney told investors during the company’s fourth-quarter and year-end earnings call on Tuesday that the company will continue to expand its stablecoin offering on the back of strong growth last year.
“We are adding support for four stablecoins running on four proprietary blockchains, representing two currencies that can be accepted and converted into over 25 traditional fiat currencies.”
Although McInerney did not provide details on the stablecoins and networks supported by Visa, the move strengthens the list of networks and stablecoins supported by the company.
Visa already supports stablecoins such as Circle’s USDC (USDC), Eurocoin (EURC), PayPal USD (PYUSD) and Global Dollar (USDG) on the Ethereum, Solana, Stellar and Avalanche blockchains.
McInerney said the company sees “particular momentum in stablecoins,” noting that $140 billion worth of crypto and stablecoin flows have been fueled since 2020.
In terms of growth, global consumer spending on card services linked to Visa’s stablecoin quadrupled in the fourth quarter compared to the same period last year, he said.
“We have expanded the number of stablecoins and blockchains available for payments, with monthly trading volume now exceeding $2.5 billion at an annual execution rate,” he added.
Visa doubles down on stablecoin banking
McInerney suggested that Visa’s main areas of focus will be expanding its stablecoin offerings for banks and other traditional financial institutions to facilitate more cross-border transactions, saying, “There will be a lot more to come in this space.”
Related: Stablecoins become a ‘global macroeconomic force’ as transaction value reaches $46 trillion: Report
The process began in late September through the Visa Direct pilot program, which allows banks and financial institutions to pre-fund cross-border payments using USDC and EURC.
McInerney said the next step is to continue to strengthen and invest in the solution layer to be able to offer more capabilities to clients and partners, including the minting and burning of stablecoins.
“We have begun to enable banks to mint and burn their own stablecoins using Visa’s tokenized asset platform, and we are adding stablecoin functionality to power cross-border funds transfers with Visa Direct.”
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