Visa said Tuesday it will open VisaNet settlement data to blockchain lenders, letting stablecoin-linked card programs and fintechs borrow against their own payment flows. The company is arriving with a track record attached: a pilot with lender Credit Coop has financed more than $2.5 billion in settlement volume since 2023 with zero defaults across participating facilities.
The program targets a financing gap. Small payment companies often hold solid collateral in the form of settlement receivables, the money Visa owes them daily for card transactions, but traditional lenders rarely recognize it. Banks typically demand operating history, scale and manual underwriting before extending credit, hurdles that young stablecoin card issuers cannot clear.
How the onchain credit model works
Under the new approach, a participating lender receives customer-authorized Visa settlement data and combines it with onchain transaction records to judge credit performance. Smart contracts then handle the mechanics. Funding arrives automatically, collateral is managed onchain, and repayment is enforced directly from the settlement flow. Visa says the Credit Coop pilot has processed more than 3,000 borrow events and 9,000 repayment events programmatically, leaving a public, auditable record of every draw and payment.
“Payment companies have always had good collateral in their settlement receivables, but no way to show lenders how it performs in real time,” said Chris Walker, founder and CEO of Credit Coop. “We can evaluate live performance, enforce repayment from the settlement flow and extend capital onchain from participating lenders as a program grows.”
Karta shows the graduation path
The clearest example is Karta, a stablecoin card program financed by Credit Coop from launch. Karta drew 34 borrows and made 95 onchain repayments through the same infrastructure before announcing a $140 million raise in June 2026, split between a $15 million Series A led by Galaxy Ventures and a $125 million institutional credit facility from Community Investment Management. The company reported 10x growth in 2025 and volume up 4x quarter over quarter in the first quarter of 2026.
Visa frames Karta as a template. A lender no traditional bank would touch at launch seasons the borrower on live settlement data, then hands it to institutional warehouse capital once a credit record exists. The company says the same model has been extended to credit-based card programs through partners Moto and Xplace.
The stablecoin numbers behind the push
| Metric | Figure |
|---|---|
| Stablecoin loans through onchain protocols since 2020 | More than $694 billion |
| Stablecoin-linked card programs on Visa | More than 160 |
| Growth in card program payment volume | Nearly 200% year over year |
| Visa stablecoin settlement run rate | Above $20 billion annualized, up more than 15x |
| Financed settlement volume since 2023 | More than $2.5 billion, zero defaults |
Visa’s Onchain Analytics Dashboard counts more than $694 billion in stablecoin-denominated loans pushed through onchain lending protocols since 2020, a credit market that runs around the clock. Visa says most of that activity stays inside crypto markets and does little for everyday payment businesses. Settlement volume on Visa’s own stablecoin rails passed a $20 billion annualized run rate this year, up more than 15x year over year.
“Stablecoins are not only changing how money moves, they’re creating opportunities to rethink the financial infrastructure that supports payments,” said Rubail Birwadker, Visa’s global head of growth products and partnerships. “We’re seeing how trusted payment data and onchain technologies can work together to unlock new forms of liquidity.”
What it means for lenders and banks
For crypto-native lenders, access to Visa settlement data is a genuine underwriting advantage. Card issuers get capital priced against live performance rather than a pitch deck, and lenders can watch their collateral flow in real time. For banks, the message is blunter. A payment giant has just certified three years of default-free lending against receivables that most credit committees still ignore.
There are caveats. The zero-default record covers a short and mostly benign period for stablecoin credit, and the participants were hand-picked. A wider pool of borrowers, or a stress episode in stablecoin markets, will test whether the performance holds. The announcement also says little about what happens to an onchain loan book if Visa revises a settlement figure or a dispute freezes receivables mid-cycle.
The direction is still clear. Visa launched its stablecoin settlement platform and has been adding card programs steadily, and wiring settlement data into credit is the next step in treating payment flows as financial infrastructure. The company positions the offering as open to participating lenders rather than an exclusive Credit Coop product, which suggests more lending partnerships are coming.
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