According to a press release published by Business Wire, global payments behemoth Visa steps up to continue its experiments with crypto. This time, it intends to expand stablecoin settlement capabilities using USDC dollar-pegged stablecoin and using the Solana blockchain to begin pilot programs with merchant acquirers Worldpay and Nuvei.
Visa has already been collaborating with top blockchain platform Ethereum for faster payment settlement via VisaNet.
The system offered by Visa helps clear, settle and transfer billions of USD worth of transactions between users' banks and merchants' banks on a daily basis, a process that remains invisible for users of Visa cards.
Using Solana and Ethereum chains and stablecoins, such as USDC, Visa will be able to conduct cross-border settlements faster and enable users to seamlessly send and receive money from Visa's treasury, according to Visa's chief of crypto, Cuy Sheffield. Basically, USDC together with Solana and Ethereum chains will help Visa improve ita way of moving money transnationally.
Visa's crypto journey with Crypto.com
The current pilots stem from the pilot program Visa started with the Crypto.com exchange in 2021, when Visa also used USDC stablecoin to see if it could improve settlements on the issuance side.
That was when Visa also partnered with the Ethereum chain to utilize it in their pilot with Crypto.com for card-based payments in Australia. Before that pilot took place, transnational purchases made with Crypto.com cards issued in partnership with Visa took days and expensive international wire transfers to settle.
Adding Solana and expanding from issuers to acquirers
Now, Visa has expanded its pilot and included the top blockchain Solana, as well as acquirers such as Worldpay and Nuvei, to shorten settlement times for their merchants.
Visa needed a new blockchain partner, aside from Ethereum, for this new part of their program, so they picked Solana to conduct USDC settlement operations between merchants and acquirers. Thus, Visa became the first major payments company using the tools offered by Solana to make payments seamless.
Arman Shirinyan
