VISA Expands the USDC Stablecoin Settlement to the Solana Blockchain Network

Visa, the worldwide leader in payments processing, has revealed its plan to extend its stablecoin settlement functionality to the Solana blockchain. In recent real-world pilot tests, Visa has collaboratively worked with issuers and acquirers, demonstrating the smooth transfer of millions of USDC stablecoins tokens between the Solana and Ethereum blockchain networks.

These transfers were specifically used to settle payments denominated in fiat currency that had been authorized through VisaNet. Visa said that it currently working with merchant acquirers Worldpay and Nuvei.

Currently, Visa provides instant payment authorization millions of Visa-accepting merchant locations around the world. However, in the backend, the funds used for their purchase move between their bank (the issuer) and the merchant’s bank.

However, this recent move of leveraging the USDC stablecoin and blockchain platforms like Solana will speed up the settlement process. Visa’ head of crypto, Cuy Sheffield said: “By leveraging stablecoins like USDC and global blockchain networks like Solana and Ethereum, we're helping to improve the speed of cross-border settlement and providing a modern option for our clients to easily send or receive funds from Visa’s treasury. Visa is committed to being on the forefront of digital currency and blockchain innovation and leveraging these new technologies to help improve the way we move money.”

Visa's treasury unit is actively testing the reception of on-chain funds from multiple issuer partners. In addition to these ongoing tests, Visa has introduced new settlement options that allow it to transmit on-chain payments to acquirers like Worldpay and Nuvei, thereby expediting settlement processes for their respective merchants.

Using Visa's Circle account, the company can now efficiently manage settlement payouts in USDC to Worldpay and Nuvei, who can subsequently channel these payments in USDC to their end merchants.

As Visa aims to broaden this capability for more clients, there has been substantial demand for leveraging advanced, high-performance blockchains that offer faster and more cost-effective handling of stablecoin transactions.

In response to this demand, Visa has chosen to incorporate support for Solana as a high-performance blockchain, giving its partners the option to send or receive USDC settlement payments. This development positions Visa as one of the first major payment firms operating at scale to directly utilize Solana for real-time settlement payments between its clients.

The Solana blockchain boasts impressive features, including 400-millisecond block times, an average of 400 transactions per second (TPS), and the capacity to handle over 2,000 TPS in various use cases during peak demand periods