Visa Deepens Stablecoin Strategy With New Advisory Practice

Visa is strengthening its role in digital payments by launching a new stablecoins advisory practice. The goal is to help financial institutions and private businesses understand how stablecoins can be used in their payment systems and business plans.

Visa Consulting Unit Helps Banks Explore Stablecoins

The new stablecoins advisory practice sits within Visa Consulting & Analytics. Through this unit, Visa offers hands-on support to organizations that want to explore or adopt stablecoins. 

The services include training programs, market research, strategy design, use-case evaluation, and technical guidance. Visa designed the practice to help clients move from early ideas to real-world implementation with confidence.

Several financial institutions like Navy Federal Credit Union, Pathward, and VyStar Credit Union, have already joined the advisory program. These early adoptions show that traditional financial institutions are getting ready to use stablecoins. 

Visa Moves Into Stablecoin Advisory as Market Grows

Visa launched this advisory service at a time of strong growth in the stablecoin market. Total stablecoin market value has now passed $300 billion. At the same time, Visa’s own stablecoin settlement activity has reached an annualized run rate of $3.5 billion as of late November. 

The advisory practice expands Visa’s ongoing work in the stablecoin sector. In 2023, Visa tested stablecoin settlement using USDC, a digital dollar issued by Circle. Today, the company supports more than 130 card programs linked to stablecoins across over 40 countries.

Visa is also testing stablecoin-based cross-border payments through Visa Direct. This system allows approved businesses to pre-fund transfers and send money directly to users’ stablecoin wallets, improving speed and reducing costs.

Stablecoins Gain Momentum Across Global Finance

Many in the industry now describe stablecoins as crypto’s first major success story. Over the past year, both individuals and institutions have used them more often for payments, trading, and international transfers. Their ability to combine digital speed with price stability has driven this adoption.

Other major financial players are moving in the same direction. Banks such as JPMorgan use tokenized deposits to speed up intraday and cross-border settlements. Payments companies like Visa and Stripe are integrating stablecoins to make money movement faster and cheaper.

Clearer regulation has also pushed stablecoin growth forward and encouraged adoption. The GENIUS Act, signed into U.S. law in July, created a federal framework for issuing and supervising stablecoins. 

Analysts expect the stablecoin market to keep expanding. Citi expects the market to reach $1.9 trillion by 2030 under a base scenario. In a more optimistic case, it could grow to as much as $4 trillion. Standard Chartered forecasts growth to around $2 trillion by 2028.

With its new advisory practice, Visa aims to help institutions prepare for this future and take practical steps into stablecoin-based payments as the market continues to mature.