Visa announced on Tuesday (8) a framework that combines VisaNet settlement data with onchain credit to expand access to working capital for fintechs and stablecoin-linked card programs. The initiative comes after the company's stablecoin settlement volume surpassed an annualized pace of US$ 20 billion, more than 15 times the one recorded a year earlier.
The expansion is also reflected in the number of products connected to the network. More than 160 stablecoin-linked card programs already operate globally on Visa, while the volume of payments in these programs grew nearly 200% in a year.
The new framework seeks to solve a financing problem created precisely by this growth. Issuers must fund their settlement obligations with Visa before receiving part of the users' funds, which creates a recurring need for working capital.
Traditional bank lines can require operating history, broader collateral, and lengthy contracting processes. Securitization structures, in turn, tend to make more sense for already larger portfolios. According to Visa, this can leave early-stage programs constrained by access to credit, even when demand for the cards already exists.
Onchain credit automates settlement financing
One of the first examples of the strategy is the partnership with Credit Coop, which offers revolving credit lines denominated in stablecoins and secured by the accounts receivable related to card settlement.
With customer authorization, daily Visa data is combined with onchain records to size the financing. Smart contracts automate steps such as release of funds, collateral control, and debt payments, allowing the line to follow the program's settlement needs.
The model has already financed more than US$ 2.5 billion in cumulative volume since 2023, according to Visa, with no records of default on the participating lines. The infrastructure carried out more than 3,000 loan operations and 9,000 onchain payments.
The company sees the combination of its payment data and blockchain infrastructure as a way to bring the onchain credit market closer to everyday financial operations. Visa's own data indicate that more than US$ 694 billion in stablecoin-denominated loans have passed through onchain credit protocols since 2020, although a large part of that activity still remains concentrated within the crypto market.
For Visa, the new framework also creates a way to finance new card programs at smaller scales and, as operations grow and accumulate credit history, allow migration to traditional sources of institutional capital.
