Visa has launched a new stablecoin platform designed for banks and fintech companies, with Open USD as its first supported asset. The Visa Stablecoin Platform will let financial institutions integrate stablecoin payments and treasury operations into Visas existing network.
The platform provides a regulated bridge between traditional financial infrastructure and the growing stablecoin ecosystem, allowing Visa partner banks to issue, hold, and transact in stablecoins without building the underlying technology themselves. Open USD, which is expected to become a major competitor to Circles USDC, is the first stablecoin supported on the platform.
Visa said the platform is designed to serve more than 200 million merchants that already accept Visa payments, enabling them to settle in stablecoins if they choose. The initiative positions the payments giant at the center of the convergence between traditional card payments and blockchain-based settlement systems.
Open USD is operated by Open Standard, a consortium of over 140 firms that launched in June. The stablecoin redistributes reserve revenue back to its partner network, a model that has attracted significant interest from financial institutions looking for an alternative to Circle USDC, which is the dominant dollar stablecoin in the US market.
Circle shares fell following the announcement of Visas platform and its support for Open USD, as investors assessed the competitive threat to Circles market position. The emergence of multiple stablecoin platforms backed by major payments infrastructure providers suggests that stablecoin-based payment settlement is becoming a mainstream financial service rather than a niche crypto application.
This article was adapted from Decrypt. Read the original here.
