Mastercard and Visa extend support for stablecoin settlement

Mastercard and Visa are both deepening their use of stablecoins in core card‑network settlement, but they are doing it in slightly different ways and geographies.

Mastercard’s latest moves

• Mastercard has partnered with SoFi to allow SoFiUSD, a fully reserved dollar stablecoin issued by SoFi Bank, to be used as a settlement option across Mastercard’s global payments network, including for SoFi Bank and Galileo clients.

• SoFiUSD will be supported on Mastercard’s Multi‑Token Network (MTN), which is positioned as a programmable settlement layer alongside fiat, tokenized deposits, and other digital assets.

• This builds on Mastercard’s August 2025 expansion with Circle, which lets acquirers in EEMEA receive settlement in USDC or EURC, rather than only in fiat, to support digital trade in emerging markets.

What Mastercard is actually “extending”

• Moving from pilot crypto card programs to using stablecoins as an infrastructure/treasury instrument (how issuers/acquirers settle with the network), not just as a consumer wallet balance.

• Extending stablecoin settlement from specific regional pilots (USDC/EURC in EEMEA) to additional regulated stablecoins (SoFiUSD) and use cases via MTN.

Visa’s stablecoin settlement expansion

• In December 2025, Visa launched USDC settlement in the United States, allowing U.S. issuer and acquirer partners to settle obligations to Visa directly in Circle’s USDC over supported blockchains such as Solana.

• Initial participants include Cross River Bank and Lead Bank, with broader U.S. access planned through 2026; Visa reports annualized stablecoin settlement volumes in the low‑single‑digit billions (around 3.5–4.5 billion).

• Visa frames this as bringing faster, 7‑day‑a‑week, programmable settlement into its core treasury operations while keeping the consumer card experience unchanged at the front end.

Additional Visa stablecoin initiatives

• Visa has been piloting stablecoin pre‑funding and payouts (e.g., via Visa Direct) and has expanded blockchain support as part of its broader strategy to “bridge” traditional payments and public blockchains.

• Through partners such as Bridge, Visa‑linked stablecoin card programs are live in multiple countries, with ambitions to scale to over 100 markets, though this focuses more on card funding and usage than core network settlement.

How Mastercard vs. Visa approaches compare

Why “extended support for stablecoin settlement” matters

• It shifts stablecoins from being mainly speculative trading or retail wallet instruments into regulated infrastructure for interbank settlement on the two dominant global card networks.

• Banks, fintechs, and acquirers get new treasury options: faster cross‑border settlement, 24/7 availability, and on‑chain programmability, subject to network and regulatory constraints.

• For now, this does not mean most merchants are getting paid directly in stablecoins, but it does open the door to more on‑chain settlement, tokenized deposits, and hybrid models over the next few years.