Visa's strategy in stablecoin settlement follows a clear path: partnering with Circle to pilot USDC settlement on Ethereum in 2021, expanding to the Solana network in 2023, and commercial collaborations with Worldpay and Crypto.com, subsequently broadening settlement capabilities to more blockchains and stablecoin categories. This directly competes with Mastercard's simultaneous push for crypto cards and on-chain settlement products.

In terms of capital strategy, Visa has not directly issued or held stablecoins but has layered an on-chain settlement channel over its existing global acquiring clearing network, allowing merchants and acquirers to choose stablecoins like USDC for fund clearing—essentially gaining entry into emerging settlement tracks with minimal capital investment while avoiding additional regulatory responsibilities in currency issuance.

This "accessing infrastructure rather than issuing its own coin" approach contrasts with PayPal's launch of its own stablecoin PYUSD in 2023 and Stripe's acquisition of stablecoin infrastructure company Bridge in the same year—traditional payment giants have chosen different strategies of issuing coins, mergers, and access to seize the same track. Visa is currently transitioning from early pilots to commercial-scale implementation, marking the mid-stage of the industry's "settlement track infrastructure competition."

Structurally, this represents a transfer of pricing power: in the traditional cross-border settlement system, bank agency networks have long held pricing power due to time differences in clearing and multi-layer intermediary fees, while stablecoin settlement bypasses this system through on-chain instant confirmation, shifting the pricing power of cross-border fund clearing from bank agency networks to stablecoin issuers and public chain infrastructure providers, with the mechanism's core being that the transparency of settlement speed and costs undermines the necessity of traditional intermediaries.

ABAB News · Cognitive Law

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