Visa Adds On-Chain Credit to Expand Stablecoin Card Push

Visa has unveiled a new initiative that blends its traditional payment settlement data with blockchain-based lending infrastructure, aiming to let lenders underwrite and finance obligations tied to card payments. The move spotlights a possible shift in how onchain lending could grow—not just within crypto markets, but also alongside everyday payment settlement.

The company says it will combine VisaNet settlement records with onchain transaction data so lenders can evaluate borrowers and provide financing against payment obligations. Visa also points to early activity through a blockchain lending protocol, Credit Coop, which it describes as having used the approach to fund business settlement needs since 2023.

Key takeaways

• Visa will link VisaNet settlement data with onchain lending tooling to help lenders finance payment obligations using combined offchain and onchain records.
• Credit Coop is cited as an early example, with more than $2.5 billion in cumulative settlement volume since 2023, according to Visa.
• Visa is continuing to expand its stablecoin-linked card business, including claims of nearly 200% year-over-year growth in payment volume.
• Visa says its stablecoin settlement volume has moved beyond a $20 billion annualized run rate—over 15x year-ago levels.

Visa’s settlement-to-lending model

In an announcement released Tuesday, Visa described how its settlement network data can be used within blockchain-based lending. The core idea is straightforward: lenders can use settlement records from Visa’s network alongside onchain transaction activity to assess creditworthiness and support financing tied to card payment flows.

Rather than treating payments as a separate world from crypto-native finance, Visa’s plan is designed to bring the two together at the underwriting stage—by grounding lending decisions in settlement outcomes and payment performance that are traceable through VisaNet records and blockchain data.

For market participants, this matters because it reframes onchain lending around payment settlement rather than relying only on typical crypto collateral or internal onchain histories. If settlement-linked lending scales, it could widen the audience for onchain credit, particularly for businesses whose cash-flow timing depends on payment processing and repayment schedules.

Credit Coop as an early proof point

Visa highlighted Credit Coop, described as a blockchain-based protocol that extends credit lines to businesses, as an early example of the settlement-and-lending approach. Visa says Credit Coop has financed more than $2.5 billion in cumulative settlement volume since 2023 across participating facilities.

Visa also provided usage metrics: it claims the program involved more than 3,000 borrowing events and 9,000 repayments. While these figures don’t necessarily indicate how widely the model will spread across all Visa participants, they do provide a concrete reference point that settlement-linked credit has already been operating.

What remains unclear is how quickly the initiative will expand beyond early facilities or what specific integration requirements different lenders or partners would face. Those details will likely determine whether Visa’s model scales smoothly or remains a niche capability.

Stablecoins remain central to Visa’s payments strategy

Visa positioned the announcement within an ongoing stablecoin push. In July, the company said on a fiscal third-quarter earnings call that it is “investing in each layer of the stablecoin stack,” spanning blockchains, wallets, infrastructure, and applications. In other words, the settlement-and-lending initiative appears to sit on top of broader stablecoin-related infrastructure developments rather than functioning as a standalone product.

Visa also pointed to participation in the OpenStandard consortium, which aims to issue OpenUSD. Visa noted that the consortium includes Stripe among more than 140 participating businesses.

On the usage side, Visa claims its stablecoin-linked card ecosystem is growing rapidly. Visa says more than 160 stablecoin-linked card programs operate on its network, and that payment volume is up nearly 200% year over year. Separately, Visa said its stablecoin settlement volume has exceeded a $20 billion annualized run rate—more than 15 times year-ago levels.

What the data says about the broader trajectory

The broader context is that stablecoin activity tied to payment flows is continuing to expand, which can create a larger base for settlement-linked lending. Visa’s analytics dashboard, Visa Onchain Analytics, has previously cited major transaction-volume milestones for stablecoins; for example, it reported adjusted stablecoin transaction volume reaching a record $1.79 trillion in June, with volume over the past 30 days at roughly $1.2 trillion, according to Visa.

By connecting that growing settlement and stablecoin ecosystem to credit infrastructure, Visa is effectively testing whether payment settlement itself can become an underwriting input for onchain lending. If it works as intended, lenders could structure financing around real payment performance—potentially improving risk assessment compared with approaches that rely solely on generic onchain behavior.

Still, readers should watch for the conditions that determine whether this model becomes widely adoptable. Key questions include how settlement records are standardized across participants, how lenders calibrate risk when payment obligations are financed onchain, and what regulatory or operational guardrails apply when offchain payment networks interact with blockchain lending systems.

Next, investors and builders should monitor whether Visa’s settlement-to-onchain lending initiative expands beyond the early Credit Coop example and how stablecoin-linked card volume translates into measurable lending growth. The strongest signal will be clear evidence that settlement-linked credit can scale without compromising underwriting quality or operational reliability.