visa It announced Tuesday morning that it will make more data available to companies lending on the blockchain, as cards linked to stablecoins meet strong demand.
By combining its payments data with on-chain lending infrastructure, the payments giant will be able to provide lenders with deeper insight into the financial performance of digital asset-focused fintech companies and card issuers. The program aims to accelerate borrowing as these companies grow rapidly.
Visa currently operates more than 160 stablecoin-linked card programs for issuers and program managers, an increase of nearly 200% year over year as more crypto companies launch cards for customers.
“Cards linked to stablecoins are in hyper-growth mode,” Qui Sheffield, head of crypto at Visa, told CNBC in an exclusive interview. He said new issuers such as stablecoin neobanks and fintech companies are joining the network and issuing cards every week.
To address the surge in demand and funding needs, Sheffield said the company is establishing partnerships that allow new issuers to access financing programs through smart contracts and on-chain credit.
“We are running a pilot with a company called Credit Coop that will enable credit functionality for card providers linked to stablecoins. We believe this is a positive step for how on-chain credit will begin to be introduced into our network,” Sheffield said.
V year cumulative
Credit Coop says it has processed a total of $2.7 billion on its platform through smart contracts and has not had any borrowers default.
According to Visa, nearly $700 billion in stablecoin-denominated loans have been transferred through on-chain lending protocols in the past six years. The company said that while much of its activity is still focused within the cryptocurrency market, this new service could help lenders better understand the context of business operations and simplify the process of evaluating lending opportunities.
The passage of the GENIUS Act last year established U.S. stablecoin regulations and accelerated adoption of the technology. Sheffield called the bill a “huge” turning point.
“We’re seeing banks and the world’s largest payment companies coming to us who want to leverage stablecoins within our existing products or work with Visa to build new products,” he said.
In July, Visa launched a stablecoin platform aimed at enabling payments, expanding stablecoin-linked card programs, and giving financial institutions access to new digital asset capabilities. With this, the payments giant joins traditional competitors like Mastercard, which has also invested heavily in stablecoins and has its own platform. paypal and Circle also operate their own stablecoin platform.
Visa stock has risen about 7% this year.
