Visa announced a program on September 8 that combines VisaNet settlement data with onchain lending so stablecoin-linked card programs and fintechs can borrow working capital against their future settlement receivables.
The payments giant said lenders participating in the model can use a card program’s live settlement performance, verified through Visa’s network data, to extend credit that is repaid automatically from future settlement flows. The company’s stablecoin settlement volume has passed a $20 billion annualized run rate, up 15 times year over year, according to CoinDesk.
The scale behind the push is large. Visa’s Onchain Analytics Dashboard counts more than $694 billion in stablecoin-denominated loans sent through onchain lending protocols since 2020. More than 160 stablecoin-linked card programs now operate on Visa’s network, with payment volume on those programs up nearly 200% year over year. Stablecoin settlement, once a pilot project inside Visa’s treasury team, has become a product line with its own platform, the Visa Stablecoin Platform, which handles settlement for issuing banks and fintech partners across multiple public blockchains.
How the credit model works
The early example is Credit Coop, a fintech that provides working capital and settlement financing to stablecoin card programs using smart contracts for funding, collateral management and repayment. With customer authorization, Credit Coop combines Visa settlement data with onchain transaction records to assess credit performance and automate settlement financing.
Since 2023 the model has financed more than $2.5 billion in cumulative settlement volume with zero defaults, Visa said. The infrastructure has processed more than 3,000 borrow events and 9,000 repayment events programmatically onchain, leaving an auditable record of the financing activity. Borrowers draw capital when a program scales up and repay from the settlement stream as card purchases clear, so the lender’s exposure tracks revenue the network itself can verify.
“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. “By combining Visa settlement data with onchain infrastructure, we can evaluate live performance, enforce repayment from the settlement flow and extend capital onchain from participating lenders as a program grows.”
Why settlement data matters
Card programs historically borrowed against receivables through slower, paperwork-heavy arrangements. Because settlement flows run through Visa’s own network, the company can vouch for the revenue stream a lender is underwriting, which lowers the risk premium. Onchain rails then handle the disbursement and repayment without manual reconciliation.
The move extends Visa’s broader stablecoin strategy, which includes expanding stablecoin-linked card issuance and helping financial institutions add digital asset capabilities. It also puts a traditional payments network directly into a lending market that until now sat mostly inside crypto: lending protocols like Aave and Morpho price credit against onchain collateral, but they had no view into a merchant’s card settlement performance.
What it changes
For fintechs running stablecoin cards, the practical effect is cheaper and faster working capital, since repayment enforcement rides on settlement flow rather than legal collection. For lenders, Visa’s data acts as underwriting input that onchain credit markets never had. For Visa, each financed program deepens dependence on its rails, which is the point: the company monetizes both the settlement and the data that makes the lending work.
It also signals how far stablecoin payments have moved into the regulated mainstream. Visa’s $20 billion annualized settlement run rate covers stablecoin payments settled on public blockchains with partners including Worldpay and Nuvei, and the card programs built on top of it are growing fast enough that financing their receivables has become a product in its own right.
Competitors are moving the same direction. Mastercard has expanded multi-token settlement pilots, and Circle, the USDC issuer, agreed on September 9 to buy the Singapore cross-border payments firm Tazapay for $400 million in stock to add regulated last-mile payment infrastructure across more than 100 markets. Stripe and PayPal run their own stablecoin settlement products, so competition for card-program volume is no longer theoretical.
The credit program is live with Credit Coop, and Visa said it plans to expand participation to additional onchain lenders. No timeline was given for which lenders join next, and Visa did not disclose pricing for the financing facilities.
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