The measure affects banks, fintechs and cryptocurrency companies.
Visa is also involved in the design of Arc, an on-chain payments network created by Circle.
Visa announces the launch of settlements with Circle’s USDC stablecoin in the United States.
The measure, communicated this December 16, allows card issuers, together with acquirers, which are the entities that process merchant payments, to settle your obligations directly using that stablecoin.
The initiative involves banks, fintechs and cryptocurrency companies. According to the company, the experience for end card users will not be modified.
The main implication of the integration this in the settlement layerthat is, in the process by which the financial entities settle funds among themselves after a card transaction has already been made.
Traditionally, this system operates on conventional banking infrastructure and with windows limited to business days.
With USDC, Visa enables settlements seven days a week, including weekends and holidays. While the settlement is carried out on the Solana network.
Additionally, using a cryptocurrency network allows for faster and more predictable circulation of fundswhile improving the liquidity management of banks and fintechs, compared to the traditional system.
The first banking participants in the United States are Cross River Bank and Lead Bank, which have already begun settling with Visa in USDC through the Solana network. Visa provides expand service availability in the country until 2026.
In this way, the Visa proposal strengthens interoperability between traditional payment systems and the “blockchain” infrastructure.
Visa also joins another Circle project
Visa also participates as a design partner for Arc, a first-layer network developed by Circle.
Arc is currently in the test network phase and is intended to support large-scale institutional financial activity.
Visa plans to use Arc for USDC settlements within its network and operate a validator node. This, when the chain comes into operation.
According to Visa, its monthly stablecoin settlement volume already exceeds an annualized rate of 3.5 billion dollarsreflecting sustained growth since it began experimenting with USDC in 2021.
Finally, Jeremy Allaire, co-founder and CEO of Circle, pointed out what the ad represents “a powerful milestone in the widespread adoption and acceptance of USDC”.
In addition, he maintained that the flow of digital dollars from users to Visa, and eventually to businesses, evidences the transition to a new internet-based financial system.