Stablecoin settlement is becoming an infrastructure question for global payment networks.
In April 2026, Visa expanded its stablecoin settlement platform to nine blockchains, including support for Arc, Base, Canton Network, Polygon, and Tempo, while its annualized settlement run rate reached $7 billion. The wider market is scaling quickly too. Adjusted stablecoin transaction volume reached $1.79 trillion in June 2026, up 63% from May and 125% year over year, according to aggregated Visa data.
CoinsPaid Media spoke with Andranik Mnatsakanyan, Senior Consulting Director at Visa Consulting & Analytics (VCA), about what happens as stablecoin settlement reaches this stage: multi-chain liquidity, fragmentation, euro stablecoins, 24/7 treasury operations, tokenized deposits, operational risk, and the signals that could show stablecoins are becoming part of everyday payment infrastructure.
What Is Stablecoin Settlement Infrastructure?
Stablecoin settlement infrastructure is the combination of blockchain networks, liquidity, redemption mechanisms, treasury systems, operational controls, and payment processes that enables institutions to settle transactions using stablecoins at scale.
For banks, issuers, acquirers, fintechs, and payment networks, the infrastructure extends beyond the blockchain transaction. It includes access to liquidity and redemption, interoperability between networks, reconciliation, compliance, governance, and systems capable of operating with continuous settlement.
Visa has been building across several parts of this stack, from multi-chain settlement to stablecoin funding and payouts through Visa Direct.
Why Payment Networks Like Visa Are Building Multi-Chain Stablecoin Settlement Infrastructure
What has Visa learned from scaling stablecoin settlement to a $7 billion annualized run rate?
Stablecoins have shifted from pilot to operational reality. We’re already seeing them used across live issuer and acquirer flows, enabling 24/7 settlement and improving treasury
efficiency.
At this stage, the key challenge shifts from technology to operational integration, liquidity management, and scaling these use cases globally.
How does Visa decide which blockchains can support global stablecoin settlement?
Visa sees stablecoins as an extension of the payments ecosystem, opening up new ways to move money faster and more efficiently.
We operate in a multi-chain world and evaluate blockchains based on performance, cost, programmability, regulatory suitability, and their ability to support settlement at scale.
Our role isn’t to pick a single network. We aim to provide a common settlement layer across multiple blockchains, allowing partners to choose their infrastructure while maintaining consistency.
When does multi-chain stablecoin settlement create fragmentation for issuers and acquirers?
Optionality becomes fragmentation when liquidity is siloed, operational complexity increases, and settlement becomes dependent on specific rails.
Visa helps address this by building interoperability across multiple chains and stablecoins, supporting flexibility while maintaining a unified settlement experience.
Euro Stablecoin Liquidity After MiCA: What Banks Still Need to Solve
Why is euro stablecoin liquidity still far behind the dollar market after MiCA?
Europe already has regulatory frameworks like MiCA, which provide legal certainty when creating euro stablecoins.
The harder challenge is creating reasons to hold and use euros on-chain. Until meaningful euro-denominated tokenized assets, payments, treasury, and settlement flows emerge, dollar stablecoins will continue to have a structural liquidity advantage, regardless of how many banks join the ecosystem.
There are signs of movement, though, with non-USD-denominated stablecoin flows currently growing at a more rapid rate than USD stablecoins. As they continue to grow, liquidity can follow.
What has to change inside banks before euro stablecoin settlement can scale?
We’re exploring how regulated stablecoins can be used by banks to modernize treasury and settlement operations.
This includes moving from batch processing to continuous liquidity management, as well as integrating blockchain-based workflows into existing systems to support programmable, always-on settlement.
Will stablecoins and tokenized deposits coexist in institutional settlement?
Stablecoins and tokenized deposits are likely to coexist, serving different use cases. The key requirement is interoperability between different forms of tokenized money.
Visa is focused on working across the ecosystem with commercial banks, central banks, and other regulated financial institutions to help ensure future forms of digital money can operate safely, with interoperability and at scale.
Stablecoin Liquidity, Prefunding, and Risk in 24/7 Settlement
Where does liquidity move when stablecoins reduce prefunding in cross-border payments?
Stablecoins shift liquidity from pre-funded, static positions to dynamic, programmable liquidity management.
While prefunding may reduce, institutions still need to manage liquidity, but they can do so in a more flexible and efficient way.
We’re already seeing this in practice through a pilot we’re running at Visa. For businesses using Visa Direct, payouts can be funded in fiat currency, while recipients can choose to receive their funds in USD-backed stablecoins. This helps improve the speed and accessibility of global payouts for those businesses.
Which parts of card settlement are hardest to translate into stablecoin-based settlement?
The movement of value is relatively straightforward, but replicating trust, governance, dispute resolution, and compliance frameworks at a global scale remains the most complex challenge.
The Visa Rules underpin trust across our network. That’s why we expect stablecoin card
issuers and institutions choosing stablecoin settlement to follow them in the same way other participants in our ecosystem do.
Because stablecoins can be used across markets, approaches also need to remain broadly aligned so they can work consistently and securely across different countries.
Which stablecoin settlement risks remain underpriced beyond reserve backing?
Beyond reserve backing, key underappreciated risks include operational resilience, system reliability, integration complexity, and dependency on redemption mechanisms and liquidity access.
How Stablecoins Become Payment Infrastructure: The Adoption Signals Visa Is Watching
What do crypto-native companies and global payment networks underestimate about each other?
Crypto-native companies are built around speed and programmability. Payment companies have experience operating across global markets, with a strong focus on operational resilience, financial stability, and compliance.
The future lies in combining both of these strengths to scale.
What would convince you that stablecoins have become real payment infrastructure?
Stablecoins become true payment infrastructure when they are used in real issuer and acquirer settlement flows, not just within crypto-native environments. That means being integrated into everyday payment use cases, from enabling consumers or corporates to spend via stablecoin-linked cards, to helping merchants send cross-border payouts into recipients’ stablecoin wallets, and managing liquidity across multiple markets.
These use cases have emerged as an important bridge between real-world assets and on-chain activity. That’s how Visa views stablecoins, as complementing, rather than replacing traditional payment rails.
What would be the strongest signal of stablecoin infrastructure adoption over the next 12–18 months?
The opportunity lies in broader participation from banks, deeper integration into existing payment systems, expansion of real-world use cases such as cross-border and B2B
payments, and continued growth beyond pilot scale.
How does VCA help banks and fintechs move from stablecoin strategy to implementation?
Through Visa Consulting & Analytics, we support banks, fintechs, merchants, and businesses of all sizes with guidance on where, how, and whether stablecoins make sense for their specific market, customer base, and risk profile.
This includes strategy development, market sizing, use case identification, operating model design, ecosystem partner selection, and end-to-end support from pilot to go-to-market.
We help clients evaluate stablecoin potential and how they can be used responsibly within existing payment and treasury strategies.
What Comes Next for Stablecoin Settlement?
Andranik’s answers point to three areas that will matter most as stablecoin settlement scales: interoperability across chains, liquidity that can work continuously across markets, and payment infrastructure that can carry the operational rules around the transaction.
Over the next few years, broader bank participation and growth in B2B, cross-border, issuer, and acquirer flows should give a clearer measure of how well stablecoins perform in day-to-day global payments.
