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Visa lets partners settle card payments with Western Union's stablecoin

Visa lets partners settle card payments with Western Union's stablecoin

Money Moves

USDPT, issued by federally chartered Anchorage Digital Bank, becomes a native settlement asset on VisaNet, with a framework for more bank-issued tokens

Today: USDPT becomes a native VisaNet settlement asset

Overview

Updated 41 minutes ago

Visa and Anchorage Digital said eligible partners can now settle what they owe on VisaNet in USDPT, Western Union's dollar-backed token, instead of moving dollars between bank accounts. The token is issued by Anchorage Digital Bank, N.A., which holds a federal charter; until now USDPT had been used mainly for Western Union payouts and a co-branded Visa card.

Nothing changes at the checkout counter. What moved is the back office: the daily reconciliation between card-issuing banks and merchant banks now has a federally supervised dollar token as one of its options. Visa says its stablecoin settlement volume reached a $20 billion annualized pace in September 2026, more than 15 times the year-earlier level.

Why it matters

The dollars behind card payments can now move as tokens from a federally chartered bank, skipping the correspondent-bank hops that normally take a day.

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Key Indicators

$20B
Visa's annualized stablecoin settlement volume
Company figure from September 2026, more than 15 times the level a year earlier.
6
Stablecoins issued by Anchorage Digital Bank
USAT, USDPT, USDGO, USDtb, fUSD and ZLUSD. Only USDPT is supported on VisaNet so far.
15x
Growth in Visa's stablecoin settlement, year over year
Described by Visa as more than 15 times the year-earlier figure, as of September 2026.
18.9M
USDPT tokens in circulation
Held by more than 600 addresses on Solana as of 12 November 2026.
$280B
Total stablecoin supply
Down from about $300 billion in March 2026, according to The Block's data.

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People Involved

NM
Nathan McCauley
Co-founder and CEO, Anchorage Digital
Running the bank that issues USDPT and five other stablecoins
DR
Dan Roesbery
Vice President, Global Crypto Partnerships and Go-to-Market, Visa
Leads the partnership side of Visa's stablecoin settlement work

Organizations Involved

Anchorage Digital
Anchorage Digital
Crypto bank
Issues USDPT and five other stablecoins; counterparty in the Visa arrangement

Anchorage Digital Bank, N.A. is a federally chartered bank that mints dollar-backed stablecoins and runs Atlas, a settlement network for institutions.
Visa Inc.
Visa Inc.
Global payments network
Added USDPT as a native settlement asset on VisaNet

Visa runs VisaNet, the network that clears card payments and nets out what issuing and merchant banks owe each other.
The Western Union Company
The Western Union Company
Money transfer and payments company
Issuer and user of USDPT; plans round-the-clock settlement across its network

Western Union launched USDPT in May 2026 and now has the token accepted on the settlement side of Visa's network as well as the spending side.
Fireblocks
Fireblocks
Digital asset infrastructure
Supplies wallet and settlement infrastructure for USDPT

Fireblocks provides the wallet and settlement plumbing that sits alongside Anchorage's issuance of USDPT.

Timeline

December 2025 November 2026

6 events Latest: Today
Tap a bar to jump to that date

  1. USDPT becomes a native VisaNet settlement asset

    Today Settlement

    Anchorage Digital and Visa say eligible partners can settle VisaNet obligations in USDPT, with a framework to consider other Anchorage-issued stablecoins later.

  2. USDPT adds a Mexican exchange listing and a remittance route

    Distribution

    Bitso lists USDPT in Mexico, and Western Union picks Noah to pay remittances into Stablecard using the token.

  3. Visa puts stablecoin settlement at $20B annualized

    Data

    Visa says its annualized stablecoin settlement run rate is more than 15 times the year-earlier figure.

  4. USDPT-backed Visa card reaches 37 markets

    Product

    Western Union and Rain launch Stablecard, which lets holders spend USDPT wherever Visa is accepted.

  5. Western Union launches USDPT on Solana

    Launch

    Anchorage Digital Bank issues the token and Fireblocks provides wallet and settlement infrastructure. First markets are the Philippines and Bolivia.

  6. Visa opens USDC settlement to US banks

    Infrastructure

    Cross River Bank and Lead Bank begin settling with Visa in USDC on Solana, as reported by Cointelegraph and cited by Solana Compass.

Scenarios

1

Second Anchorage-issued stablecoin joins VisaNet settlement

Possible Resolves by End of 2027

Discussed by: Anchorage's release says the deal creates a framework to explore additional stablecoins; The Block and Solana Compass both note neither company has named the next coin or a date.

Anchorage issues six stablecoins, and the announcement is written as a template rather than a one-off. The candidates named in coverage are USAT for Tether, USDGO for OSL Group, USDtb for Ethena Labs, fUSD for Falcon Finance and ZLUSD for Zelle. Adding one would confirm Visa is building a stablecoin settlement menu rather than backing a single partner.

2

Visa names a bank that actually settles in USDPT

Possible Resolves by Q2 2027

Discussed by: The Payments Nerd flagged that the reports do not identify participating institutions, corridor coverage, pricing or settlement volumes, leaving banks without inputs to compare the option with existing arrangements.

Announcing that a settlement option exists is not the same as anyone using it. The next proof point is a named card-issuing bank or merchant acquirer settling VisaNet obligations in USDPT, which would show the token cleared operational and compliance review at an actual counterparty.

3

USDPT supply passes 100 million tokens

Uncertain Resolves by End of 2027

Discussed by: Solana Compass tracks USDPT supply at about 18.9 million tokens across more than 600 holders as of 12 November 2026.

Settlement demand would show up in the token's float. Growing from roughly 19 million to 100 million would require sustained institutional use rather than the retail card and remittance flows USDPT has relied on so far. Supply can also grow for reasons other than Visa settlement, so the metric is a proxy, not proof.

4

Visa's stablecoin settlement passes $50B annualized

Possible Resolves by Q3 2027

Discussed by: Visa's own September 2026 disclosure put the run rate at $20 billion, and The Block reports the company keeps adding settlement networks.

The $20 billion figure covers all stablecoin settlement, not USDPT alone. Reaching $50 billion would mean the overall program more than doubled again, which is the clearest test of whether stablecoin settlement is spreading beyond pilot partners.

Historical Context

3 moments from history that rhyme with this story — and how they unfolded.

1968-1973

Wall Street's paperwork crisis and the Depository Trust Company (1973)

In the late 1960s, trading volume outran the clerks who physically moved stock certificates between firms. Backlogs of unprocessed trades grew so large that the New York Stock Exchange shortened its trading week to let the paperwork catch up. The Depository Trust Company opened in 1973 to hold certificates in one place and settle trades by book entry instead of delivery.

Then

Firms stopped shipping paper certificates between offices for most trades.

Now

Book-entry settlement became the default for US securities, and the depository became a piece of market infrastructure nobody thinks about until it fails.

Why this matters now

Settlement layers get rebuilt when volume outgrows the manual step. Here the manual step is the interbank dollar leg, and the replacement is a token.

2002

CLS Bank and continuous FX settlement (2002)

A group of the largest foreign-exchange banks built CLS Bank to settle both legs of a currency trade at the same moment, closing the window in which one side could deliver and the other fail. The utility was owned by the banks that used it rather than by a government.

Then

Participating banks could settle cross-currency trades without leaving one leg exposed overnight.

Now

A privately built, bank-owned settlement utility became standard infrastructure for the currency market without replacing the market itself.

Why this matters now

Shows the pattern Visa is following: settlement infrastructure built by regulated institutions, adopted because counterparties trust the operator, not because a rule forced it.

June 2019-January 2022

Facebook's Libra and Diem (2019-2022)

Facebook announced Libra in June 2019, proposing a basket-backed token run by an association in Switzerland to settle payments across its apps. US and European regulators objected, several founding partners withdrew, and the project was renamed Diem before its assets were sold to Silvergate Capital in January 2022.

Then

The token never launched.

Now

Large-company stablecoin plans shifted toward bank-chartered issuance and consortium structures rather than independent associations.

Why this matters now

USDPT is the same proposition routed through a federally chartered bank. The charter is the piece Libra could not get.

Sources

(7)
+1
Anchorage Digital The Block Solana Compass The Payments Nerd Swiss Inquirer CryptoWisser Crypto Insiders