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Visa is positioning itself to remain at the centre of global payments by integrating stablecoins into its existing infrastructure, as digital tokens pegged to traditional currencies gain momentum, according to the company’s head of crypto, Cuy Sheffield.
Speaking in an interview, Sheffield said Visa sees stablecoins as an opportunity rather than a threat, even as they enable the movement of funds outside traditional banking systems. Stablecoins typically pegged to the US dollar have grown rapidly in circulation, led by El Salvador-based Tether’s USDT, which now has about 187 billion tokens in circulation.
Despite this growth, Sheffield noted that mainstream merchant acceptance of stablecoins remains limited.
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“Even if you build a new payment system using stablecoins, you still have to come back and connect to the existing merchant acceptance ecosystem if you want that product to be used,” he said, referring to Visa’s vast global network of merchants.
Visa has already rolled out several stablecoin-related initiatives, including stablecoin-linked payment cards that allow users to spend digital tokens wherever Visa is accepted. In December, the payments giant launched a pilot programme enabling select US banks to settle transactions with Visa using Circle’s USDC stablecoin.
However, Sheffield acknowledged that there is currently no “merchant acceptance at scale” that allows consumers to directly spend stablecoins without relying on intermediaries.
As a result, he argued that firms building stablecoin-based products still need Visa’s infrastructure to reach real customers.
“This means companies need Visa’s products and services more than ever to be able to actually get real customers using them,” he said.
Visa’s stablecoin settlement volumes have reached a $4.5 billion annualised run rate, a relatively small share of the $14.2 trillion in total payments Visa processed last year. Still, Sheffield said growth has been strong.
“But this is growing significantly month over month,” he noted. “We’re seeing demand, and it’s mostly this class of stablecoin-linked card providers.”
The rise of stablecoins has drawn the attention of major global banks. Institutions including Goldman Sachs, UBS and Citi said last year that they were exploring launching their own stablecoins, amid concerns that privately issued digital currencies could undermine the traditional role of commercial banks in global payment flows.
In Europe, banks such as ING and UniCredit have joined forces to create a company aimed at launching a euro-pegged stablecoin, partly to counter US dominance in digital payments. Sheffield welcomed the development, saying the future of stablecoins should not be limited to the US dollar.
“I think the stablecoin story shouldn’t just be about dollars,” he said, adding that euro-backed stablecoins could play an important role in regional and cross-border payments.
There are now more than $270 billion worth of stablecoins in circulation globally, more than double the $120 billion recorded two years ago, according to data from a website jointly run by Visa and blockchain analytics firm Allium Labs.
However, scepticism remains. In a research note last year, JPMorgan analysts argued that the idea of stablecoins fully replacing traditional money systems was still far from reality.
Of the $47 trillion in total stablecoin transaction volume recorded on blockchains, Visa’s data cites $10.4 trillion as “adjusted” volume. Sheffield explained that the figure was revised downward to exclude activity from high-frequency traders arbitraging across exchanges, as well as other non-payment-related transactions.
As stablecoins continue to evolve, Visa’s strategy is clear: rather than being disrupted, the company aims to serve as the bridge between emerging digital currencies and the existing global payments ecosystem.
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