Pull to refresh
Logo
Visa uses onchain lending to finance stablecoin card programs

Visa uses onchain lending to finance stablecoin card programs

Money Moves

Visa pairs settlement data with Credit Coop's smart-contract credit to fund daily card settlement

Today: Visa unveils onchain lending for stablecoin card programs

Overview

Updated 1 hour ago

Visa's stablecoin-linked card programs grew payment volume nearly 200% year over year, and their settlement run rate just passed $20 billion at an annualized pace. Those programs must fund daily settlement obligations before cardholders repay them, a working-capital gap that bank credit lines were too slow and too rigid to fill.

Visa now pairs its settlement data with Credit Coop's onchain lending infrastructure. Lenders underwrite against live settlement receivables, and a smart contract called the Spigot enforces repayment from incoming proceeds. Credit Coop has financed $2.5 billion since 2023 with zero defaults.

Why it matters

Stablecoin card programs now have a working-capital path that traditional bank credit couldn't serve, changing who can launch a card issuer.

Questions about this story

Free account needed to ask — your question is kept and asked for you right after sign-up. Answers are public.

No questions yet — be the first to ask.

Key Indicators

160+
Stablecoin-linked card programs on Visa's network
Payment volume on these programs grew nearly 200% year over year in Q2 FY2026.
$20B
Annualized stablecoin settlement run rate
Up more than 15x year over year, per Visa.
$2.5B
Cumulative financed settlement volume since 2023
Across Credit Coop facilities, with zero defaults.
0
Defaults across participating facilities
More than 3,000 borrow events and 9,000 repayment events executed onchain.
30%
Reduction in borrowing costs for participating programs
Lender participation grew as facilities were underwritten against Visa settlement data.

Voices

Curated perspectives — historical figures and your fellow readers.

Ever wondered what historical figures would say about today's headlines?

Sign up to generate historical perspectives on this story.

Play

Exploring all sides of a story is often best achieved with Play.

Most of these play right now — no account needed. Sign up to save scores, keep a streak, and unlock Debate and Predict. Log in Sign Up
Predict 3 ways this could play out. Back the one you believe — contrarian picks score more when a scenario has a resolution date. Log in to play

People Involved

Organizations Involved

Timeline

August 2023 September 2026

4 events Latest: Today
Tap a bar to jump to that date
  1. Visa unveils onchain lending for stablecoin card programs

    Today Announcement

    Visa combines VisaNet settlement data with Credit Coop's smart-contract lending, citing $2.5B financed with zero defaults since 2023.

  2. Visa stablecoin settlement tops $20B run rate

    Milestone

    Stablecoin settlement hits a $20B annualized run rate, up more than 15x year over year, per industry reporting.

  3. Karta announces $140M raise

    Funding

    Karta raises $15M in Series A and a $125M institutional credit facility after scaling on Credit Coop financing.

  4. Rain begins using Credit Coop's settlement facility

    Partnership

    Rain, a Visa Principal Member, starts funding daily Visa settlement obligations through Credit Coop's onchain credit facility.

Historical Context

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

1986

First credit card securitization (1986)

Bank One (Delaware) issued the first credit-card-backed securities, packaging card receivables into bonds investors could buy. That turned card loans from a balance-sheet cost into a fundable asset class.

Then

Banks gained a cheap, scalable source of capital for card issuance, fueling the credit card boom of the late 1980s and 1990s.

Now

Receivables-backed finance became the backbone of consumer lending, with card securitizations now measured in hundreds of billions of dollars annually.

Why this matters now

Visa's model applies the same insight to stablecoin card programs: settlement receivables are reliable collateral. Onchain data and smart contracts replace the opaque underwriting that once limited receivables financing.

2004-2015

Merchant cash advance boom (2004-2015)

Funders advanced working capital to small merchants against future card sales, charging effective rates often far above bank loans. Underwriting was opaque and repayment was manual, so pricing reflected the lender's uncertainty rather than the merchant's real payment history.

Then

The industry grew into a multi-billion-dollar market but earned a reputation for high costs and aggressive collection.

Now

It showed that receivables-based lending works at scale, but that data opacity keeps it expensive.

Why this matters now

Visa's settlement-data pipeline gives lenders a live, borrower-independent view of performance. Participating programs have seen borrowing costs fall by as much as 30%.

1970s-2000s

Lockbox banking and deposit account control agreements (1970s-2000s)

Banks collected borrower payments into lockboxes on behalf of lenders, and secured lenders signed deposit account control agreements (DACAs) giving them legal control over collateral accounts. Manual sweeps and banking-hours limits constrained how fast cash could move.

Then

Collateral control became a legal and operational pillar of secured lending, with lenders relying on third-party banks to enforce it.

Now

The structure persisted for decades, with no settlement capability from Friday afternoon through Monday morning on many facilities.

Why this matters now

Credit Coop's Spigot smart contract is the onchain analog of a lockbox under a DACA, enforced programmatically rather than through manual sweeps, and it never closes.

Sources

(6)