Visa Accelerates Stablecoin Momentum: Adding Five Blockchains for Settlement

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Apr 29, 2026--

Today, Visa (NYSE: V) announced that it is adding five blockchains to its global stablecoin settlement pilot, expanding how issuers and acquirers can settle with the network. As stablecoins move into mainstream payment flows, Visa’s stablecoin settlement pilot now supports nine blockchains and has reached a $7 billion annualized stablecoin settlement run rate, up 50% since last quarter.

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“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, 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.”

Newly supported blockchains

Visa is adding support for five additional blockchains, further expanding its multi-chain settlement capabilities:

With these additions, Visa now supports nine blockchains across its global stablecoin settlement pilot program, giving partners more choice while building on existing support for Avalanche, Ethereum, Solana, and Stellar.

From experimentation to multi-chain reality

Over the past year, stablecoins have evolved from a promising innovation to a practical way to move money globally, and Visa’s settlement pilots are helping partners streamline operations.

This builds on years of live pilots and regional rollouts across LAC, Europe, AP and CEMEA, as well as the recent expansion of USDC settlement to U.S. banks and 130+ stablecoin-linked card programs in more than 50 countries. The move to nine supported blockchains mirrors a broader trend: liquidity and activity now span a diverse, multi-chain ecosystem, and settlement infrastructure is evolving to match to provide more choice.

Visa is building toward a future where interoperability is essential. Supporting multiple blockchains gives partners more choice in how they access liquidity across ecosystems and adapt as the landscape changes, while Visa eases some of the underlying complexity so institutions can use stablecoins through a trusted, global network.

Continued momentum

The growth to a $7B run rate underscores increasing confidence in blockchain infrastructure from financial institutions, fintechs, and payment providers. Stablecoin settlement over blockchain infrastructure is becoming a viable complement to traditional settlement rails.

As adoption continues, Visa remains focused on bridging traditional finance and blockchain-based systems - bringing the same standards of reliability, security, and scale to both.

Partner perspectives

“Arc is designed to provide the performance, predictability, and reliable access to liquidity needed to support real-time settlement at a global scale. Our work with Visa reflects growing demand for stablecoins like USDC and blockchain infrastructure that can settle today’s payment flows instantly while enabling the next era of programmable commerce and agent-driven economic activity.” Nikhil Chandhok, Chief Product and Technology Officer, Circle.

“Our goal with Base has always been to make onchain the new standard. 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.

“Canton was designed to meet demanding requirements of regulated institutions, and Visa’s stablecoin settlement platform provides a bridge that lets them explore onchain settlement while staying aligned with their compliance requirements,” said Eric Saraniecki, Head of Network Strategy at Digital Asset, co-founder of the Canton Network.

“Visa adding Polygon signals that stablecoins are moving into real world payments at scale. By combining Visa’s global reach with Polygon’s fast, low-cost infrastructure, we are making stablecoin settlement more practical, reliable, and accessible for partners around the world,” said Marc Boiron, CEO, Polygon Labs.

“Tempo is focused on real-time stablecoin settlement, and Visa’s participation as both a validator and settlement partner helps bring always-on, programmable payments closer to the mainstream,” said Ani Narayan, GTM, Tempo.

About Visa

Visa (NYSE: V) is a world leader in digital payments, facilitating transactions between consumers, merchants, financial institutions and government entities across more than 200 countries and territories. Our mission is to connect the world through the most innovative, convenient, reliable and secure payments network, enabling individuals, businesses and economies to thrive. We believe that economies that include everyone everywhere, uplift everyone everywhere and see access as foundational to the future of money movement. Learn more at Visa.com.

Visa is adding support for five additional blockchains, further expanding its multi-chain settlement capabilities.

BERLIN (AP) — A barge carrying a humpback whale that had been stranded in shallow waters near Germany since March has begun its journey toward the North Sea. It reached Danish waters on Wednesday, German authorities said.

Nicknamed Timmy by German media, the whale was spotted swimming near Germany's Baltic Sea coast on March 3, far from its natural habitat in the Atlantic Ocean. The mammal's health deteriorated as it became repeatedly stranded in shallow waters, and unsuccessful efforts to coax it toward deeper seas were livestreamed across the globe.

Rescuers on Tuesday pulled the whale to a flooded barge using straps and a channel previously dredged to create a passage to the vessel, the Germany press agency dpa reported.

The barge is now expected to go around the northern tip of Denmark via the strait of Skagerrak toward the North Sea.

“Something like this has never happened before in Germany, where a life-saving operation of this kind has been carried out,” Till Backhaus, minister for climate protection, agriculture, rural areas and the environment of the federal state of Mecklenburg Vorpommern, told a press conference. “And this was an experiment, and the experiment was a success, and that’s wonderful.”

The minister said the whale was resting peacefully and on Tuesday night it vocalized, which meant it was doing well.

The minister had given the green light for the latest attempt to save the whale, proposed by a private initiative, despite some warnings from the scientific community that it may be too much for the animal.

The debate about whether to let it die in peace or try to assist its return to the Atlantic Ocean has gone on for weeks. Activists have staged protests on the beach in Wismar calling for its liberation, while others have supported new ideas about how the whale could be transported.

Thilo Maack, a marine biologist at Greenpeace, told the The Associated Press earlier this month that efforts to save Timmy have caused the animal severe stress.

“I believe the whale will die very soon now. And I would also like to raise the question: What is actually so bad about that?” he said. “Yes, animals live, animals die. This animal is really, really very, very, very sick. And it has decided to seek rest.”

Some scientists believe the whale had searched especially for shallow waters because it was weak and needed rest. The veterinarians of the private initiative, however, consider the animal fit for transport.

The humpback whale recovered from a shallow bay off Wismar is being transported towards the North Sea by two tugboats in a flooded cargo ship off the Danish coast, in Fehmarn, Germany, Wednesday, April 29, 2026. (Philip Dulian/dpa via AP)

The humpback whale recovered from a shallow bay off Wismar is being transported towards the North Sea in a flooded cargo ship just before the Danish border in Fehmarn, Germany, Wednesday, April 29, 2026. (Philip Dulian/dpa via AP)

The humpback whale recovered from a shallow bay off Wismar is being transported towards the North Sea in a flooded cargo ship just before the Danish border in Fehmarn, Germany, Wednesday, April 29, 2026. (Philip Dulian/dpa via AP)