Payments Giant Visa Expands Stablecoin Offerings

Payment company Visa expanded stablecoin offerings on its settlement platform by adding support for Global Dollar (USDG), PayPal USD (PYUSD), Euro Coin (EURC) and two new blockchain networks, Stellar and Avalanche.

The integration allows users to send and receive stablecoin payments through the supported blockchain networks or convert their balances to traditional fiat currency, Visa said in a press release on Thursday.

Visa already offered support to Circle’s USD Coin (USDC) stablecoin, while supported networks for transfer and settlement include Ethereum, Solana and the newly added chains.

Institutional interest in stablecoins is growing following the signing of the GENIUS stablecoin bill in the United States, as tech firms, banks and even major retailers signal plans to enter the stablecoin market and take a piece of the pie.

Related: Trump-linked WLFI invests $10M in Falcon Finance for stablecoin development

Rising competition for stablecoin market share

Visa faces competition from a growing list of financial institutions that are issuing stablecoins or integrating stablecoin services for their clients.

This includes stablecoin issuers, which are disruptive to legacy financial systems, payment processing companies have acknowledged.

Payments and credit card company Mastercard, Visa’s direct competitor, is collaborating with crypto companies to integrate crypto payments and has already tokenized 30% of its transactions.

In June, reports emerged that retail giant Walmart and tech company Amazon, which also doubles as an online marketplace, were exploring the possibility of launching their own stablecoins. Both companies do business internationally and would benefit from the reduced transaction fees and near-instant settlement times for cross-border commerce.

Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan has repeatedly teased plans to create a stablecoin and equip the bank with stablecoin payment rails.

More recently, financial services company and banking giant JPMorgan partnered with Coinbase to allow customers the ability to link their Chase accounts directly to Coinbase and convert rewards points to USDC.

Earlier this year, representatives for Mastercard acknowledged that stablecoins directly threaten the payment processor business model and are a disruptive technology.

In June, Noam Hurwitz, head of engineering at payments infrastructure company Alchemy, told Cointelegraph that onchain stablecoin transaction volume has surpassed that of Visa and Mastercard and is becoming the “default settlement layer” for the internet. 

Magazine: Unstablecoins: Depegging, bank run, and other risks loom