Per an official announcement, fee large VISA expanded its stablecoin settlement companies to the Solana blockchain. This system is at present in a pilot and testing section however appears to enhance upon the capabilities of the legacy fee rails.
VISA Doubles Down On Blockchain, Solana Half Of New Program
In line with the announcement, the pilot program permits “enterprise-grade” throughput and low transaction prices by including blockchain capabilities on Solana. VISA acquired retailers Worldpay and Nuvei to realize this goal.
The announcement claims the fee large has already settled hundreds of thousands of {dollars} on blockchain networks with stablecoin USDC. VISA’s Head of Crypto, Cuy Sheffield, acknowledged the next relating to this new growth and this know-how’s potential to “enhance” legacy fee programs:
By leveraging stablecoins like USDC and international blockchain networks like Solana and Ethereum, we’re serving to to enhance the pace of cross-border settlement and offering a contemporary possibility for our shoppers to simply ship or obtain funds from Visa’s treasury. Visa is dedicated to being on the forefront of digital foreign money and blockchain innovation and leveraging these new applied sciences to assist enhance the best way we transfer cash.
This system to settle funds with stablecoin USDC started in 2021 when the fee firm took an curiosity in blockchain. The corporate partnered with crypto change Crypto.com to leverage the Ethereum blockchain for cross-border transactions in Australia.
Fee went from settling in days to seconds with the brand new initiative. The announcement claims that the acquisition of Worldpay and Nuvei will assist “pace up settlement instances for his or her retailers,” scale back prices, enhance throughput, and decentralization to this system.
Is Solana The Greatest Alternative For VISA’s Program?
This partnership made VISA one of many first legacy firms to launch direct reside settlement funds on the Solana blockchain. Sooner or later, the fee firm claims to be ready to forge new alliances and work with new companions to increase its program.
Jim Johnson, President of Worldpay Service provider Options, added:
Visa’s USDC settlement functionality permits Worldpay to deliver extra of our treasury operations in-house and permits us to supply retailers extra decisions for receiving funds. Diversifying funding choices and growing flexibility is important to serving the altering wants of worldwide retailers in at present’s quickly evolving commerce panorama.
Information from Token Terminal exhibits that Solana has been extremely impacted by the “Crypto Winter.” The blockchain has skilled a 12% drop in its circulating market cap and a 4% loss in its 30-day income, whereas its native token, SOL, has declined by 16% prior to now 30 days.
Nevertheless, the blockchain maintains a 20% achieve on its annualized income and annualized charges, and whereas its lively customers have seen a decline (from 200,000 to round 100,000), the general tendencies level to the upside on these metrics.

Charts from Token Terminal and Tradingview