Visa Adds Five Blockchains to Stablecoin Settlement Network

Visa is adding five blockchains to its stablecoin settlement network as it expands its multichain vision of global payments.

The news comes as the payments giant announced that its settlement run rate hit $7 billion in Q1 2026, up 50% over the previous quarter. The network allows issuers and acquirers to settle transactions with stablecoins instead of the slow and costly traditional banking rails.

Visa’s stablecoin settlement pilot now has nine blockchains, with Arc, Base, Canton, Polygon, and Tempo joining Avalanche, Ethereum, Solana, and Stellar.

“Our partners are building in a multi-chain world, and they expect their options to reflect that reality,” said Rubail Birwadker, global head of growth products and strategic partnerships at Visa. “Expanding our stablecoin settlement pilot program to more blockchains means our partners can choose the networks that best fit their needs, while relying on Visa to provide a common settlement layer across all of them.”

While traditional banking rails run through the SWIFT system, which can take days to settle with high fees, Visa’s partners can settle transactions in near real time at a very low cost.

That $7 billion run rate signifies increasing confidence in blockchain infrastructure by financial institution, fintechs, and payment providers, Visa said in a statement. It shows stablecoin settlement over blockchain rails becoming a viable complement to traditional settlement rails, it added.

Moving to nine chains reflects a broader trend of liquidity and activity moving to a diverse and multi-chain ecosystem. As a result, Visa’s settlement infrastructure is evolving to match that, the company said.

“Visa’s expansion is a pivotal step in making stablecoin payments a daily reality for billions of people, enabling a faster, cheaper, and more useful financial system for everyone,” said Jesse Pollak, founder of Base. “Our goal with Base has always been to make onchain the new standard.”

Visa’s stablecoin pilot has been running for years, rolling out in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and Latin America and the Caribbean. It also recently expanded its USDC stablecoin settlement network to U.S. banks and more than 130 stablecoin debit cards in over 50 countries.