Payment Giant, VISA, Targets Stablecoin Settlements

Payments company Visa is seeking to develop a "muscle memory" for settlements that will allow the conversion of digital assets into fiat currencies on its platform.

During the StarkWare Sessions 2023 conference in Tel Aviv, Visa cryptocurrency head Kai Sheffield confirmed that the company was testing the possibility of making settlement transactions in USD Coin Stablecoin (USDC) on Ethereum. He noted that it was about high value payments.

He recalled that the Visa platform works entirely on top of the interbank system SWIFT. Because of the latter's limitations, the company cannot make payments as often as it would like, Sheffield stressed. Therefore, the firm is exploring the possibility of incorporating blockchain into its existing network.

In January, company CEO Alfred Kelly expressed confidence that "stable coins" and CBDC could "play a meaningful role in payments." The firm has a number of initiatives in that direction, he said.

Visa is looking at how to apply new technology to improve existing interbank channels, Sheffield said.