Visa says it will allow the use of cryptocurrency USD Coin to settle transactions on its payment network and has launched a pilot program with Crypto.com
Visa had already announced a connection between its network and USDC; the Crypto.com pilot advances that earlier network connection to USDC into transaction settlement. The distinction matters because settlement places the stablecoin behind payment-network flows rather than merely making it reachable.
Visa and Crypto.com begin testing USDC as a settlement instrument on Visa’s payment network, giving both parties operational experience with stablecoin-based settlement.
USDC gains a defined role in a major card-network pilot, while Visa retains the network layer through which the transactions settle.
Second-order effects
The pilot creates a model Visa later reused with Worldpay and Nuvei, broadening stablecoin settlement from a single crypto-platform partner toward payments-industry partners.
Payment institutions connected to Visa gain a reason to evaluate stablecoin settlement capabilities as Visa moves from a USDC connection toward live settlement workflows.
If this rollout pattern holds, competition in payment settlement will center on which networks can make programmable assets usable within established institutional and merchant workflows.
The trend: Card networks are moving stablecoins from connectivity experiments into settlement infrastructure delivered through their existing payment ecosystems.
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