Visa is merging its payment settlement data with blockchain lending infrastructure to help stablecoin-linked card programs and fintech companies access working capital, the company announced on Tuesday 8 September.
How the Model Works
Lenders can use VisaNet settlement data alongside onchain transaction records to evaluate a payment business’s credit performance and set financing terms. The loans are drawn against settlement receivables, meaning the money a business is owed, with repayments automatically collected from those incoming funds. Smart contracts handle funding, collateral management, and repayment automation.
‘We’re seeing how trusted payment data and onchain technologies can work together to unlock new forms of liquidity, helping businesses access capital in ways that are more transparent, programmable and aligned to the speed of modern commerce,’ said Rubail Birwadker, Visa’s global head of growth products and partnerships.
Credit Coop: The Early Case Study
Visa highlighted its work with Credit Coop as the first live implementation. With customer authorisation, Credit Coop combines Visa settlement data with blockchain records to assess creditworthiness. According to Visa, the model has financed more than 2.5 billion dollars in cumulative settlement volume since 2023, with zero defaults across all participating facilities. The announcement did not name other participating lenders, disclose financing rates, or specify broader availability timelines.
The Scale of Stablecoin Activity on Visa’s Network
- Payment volume across more than 160 stablecoin-linked card programs grew nearly 200 percent year over year.
- Stablecoin settlement volume rose more than 15-fold to an annualized rate above 20 billion dollars.
- Onchain lending protocols have processed more than 694 billion dollars in stablecoin loans since 2020, according to Visa’s own analytics dashboard.
Context: Visa’s Expanding Stablecoin Push
Tuesday’s announcement is part of a broader campaign Visa has pursued across the past year. Last October the company argued that stablecoin lending could move portions of the 40 trillion dollar global credit market onto blockchains. In July it launched a stablecoin platform for banks and fintechs that bundles issuance, wallets, transfers, and treasury functions with its existing payment rails.
In April, Visa added five new blockchains to its settlement programme, Arc, Base, Canton, Polygon, and Tempo, bringing the total supported networks to nine and disclosing a 7 billion dollar annualized settlement rate at that time.
‘Traditional financing structures often require significant scale, operating history or manual underwriting processes before credit becomes available,’ Visa wrote in the announcement. ‘Visa believes blockchain-based lending infrastructure, supported by trusted payment data, can help address these challenges while introducing greater transparency and efficiency.’
