On Tuesday September 8, Visa, a global payment giant said that at the end of the second quarter 2026, over 160 stablecoin linked programs ran live on its global infrastructure. On top of everything, the payment volumes in the period surged by nearly 200%.
Visa noted that stablecoin-linked card programs have seen immense expansion. Visa also noted that the stablecoin settlement volumes stood at about $20 billion, which represents an over 15x surge year on year.
The Hidden Working Capital Bottleneck for Stablecoin Issuers
According to Visa, this growth is already creating a working capital requirement that rarely makes headlines. The statement said:
“Every card program has to fund its daily settlement obligation before it collects from cardholders, and the working capital to bridge that gap has to come from somewhere.”
Furthermore, Visa notes that many stablecoin linked programs will often settle every day of the week with capital requirements way below “the size at which warehouse economics typically work.” In fact, Visa noted that a program in the first year might need a few million dollars to complete settlements every other day.
Visa also wrote:
“The result is that some early-stage programs are constrained less by demand or by network infrastructure than by access to working capital structured for how they operate day to day.”
Solving the Capital Bottleneck Through Onchain Credit Pilots
When talking to CNBC, the head of crypto at Visa, Cuy Sheffield, said to another news outlet that “Stablecoin-linked cards are in hypergrowth mode.” The new issuers, including stablecoin neobanks and fintechs are all actively joining the network and launching a card every week.
According to Sheffield, Visa has been actively collaborating with other projects, in a bid to allow new issuers of stablecoin to access financing options via smart contracts and onchain credit. Already, the crypto head said that Visa is running a pilot program with Credit Coop to enable credit facilities for stablecoin linked card providers. This, according to Cuy, is a step in the right direction concerning how onchain credit can start to come into the Visa network.
In fact, Credit Coop has already processed over $2.7 billion through smart contracts.
Dan is a seasoned crypto writer for Blockchaindose who got his start in the space back in 2019. Over the past four years, he’s built a solid grasp of how the industry moves, focusing heavily on DeFi, NFTs, GameFi, and promising new projects.
Off the clock, you’ll usually find him buried in a good book or kicking back with a movie. His blend of hands-on market experience and straightforward commentary makes him a clear, trusted voice across the platform.
