Visa in stablecoins, AI payments and card tokens
Visa runs one of the two large international card networks. In its own words it is "a world leader in digital payments", with transactions between consumers, merchants, financial institutions and governments in more than 200 countries and territories (Visa). Banks issue Visa cards to their customers, and Visa routes and settles the payments between those banks.
Visa now settles part of these payments in stablecoins and lets AI agents pay for shoppers in Europe. Visa is one of Finance Loop's event and network partners.
Visa stablecoin settlement
Settlement is the step after a card payment, when the card issuer and the merchant's bank pay each other through Visa. In a pilot, Visa lets issuers and acquirers make this payment in stablecoins. On July 31, 2025, Visa added Circle's euro stablecoin EURC, so selected partners can settle in both dollar and euro stablecoins, on Stellar, Avalanche, Ethereum and Solana (Visa).
On April 29, 2026, Visa added five more blockchains to the pilot: Arc, Base, Canton, Polygon and Tempo, which makes nine. Visa gave an annualized stablecoin settlement run rate of 7 billion dollars, up 50 percent from the quarter before (Visa). Finance Loop's page on stablecoin payments adds that Visa extends stablecoin settlement across Visa Direct, with USDC as the main settlement asset, and Circle covers the issuer of USDC and EURC.
AI agents that pay: Visa Intelligent Commerce
Visa calls its program for payments started by AI agents Visa Intelligent Commerce. In March 2026 Visa launched Visa Agentic Ready in Europe first, a program for card issuers to test payments that an agent starts for a cardholder. On July 2, 2026, at the Visa Payments Forum in Paris, Visa reported live agent purchases at merchants across Europe, made within limits the cardholder set (Visa). More than 30 issuers took part, among them Commerzbank, Deutsche Kreditbank and comdirect in Germany, and the merchants included lastminute.com.
In the EU, such a payment still falls under strong customer authentication in Article 97 of PSD2: the bank has to be sure that the cardholder agreed. The page on AI use cases in finance covers other uses of AI at banks.
Card tokenization and crypto
At Visa, "tokenization" first means card tokens. The card number is replaced by a token that works only for one merchant, device or payment type, and the card network passes the token to the issuer, which approves the payment (EMVCo). The hub answer on payment tokenization explains how it works. Tokenized securities are a different thing: bonds or fund units recorded on a blockchain.
A crypto card with the Visa logo is issued by a bank or e-money institution that works with a crypto provider. In the EU the provider that exchanges or holds the crypto needs a license under MiCAR, as the page on MiCA in Germany explains.
Visa and Wero in Europe
The European Payments Initiative, owned by European banks and payment processors, built Wero as a European payment option that does not depend on Visa, Mastercard or PayPal, as the page on payments in Europe sets out. Wero runs on the instant transfers every EU bank has to offer. The hub answer on Wero explains how it works.
Card networks are also the usual yardstick in blockchain debates. The Lightning Network paper of 2016 noted that Visa handled 47,000 transactions per second at its peak in the 2013 holidays, while Bitcoin supported fewer than 7 (Poon and Dryja).
Visa and Finance Loop
Visa is on the About page among Finance Loop's event and network partners, and Finance Loop thanked Visa in its review of its first year.
Does Visa use stablecoins?
Yes, for settlement between banks in its network. In the pilot, card issuers and acquirers can settle with Visa in USDC or EURC. The cardholder still pays in euros or dollars and does not see the stablecoin.
What is agentic commerce at Visa?
Agentic commerce means that an AI agent buys something for a person, within limits the person sets, and pays with that person's card. Visa tests it with banks in Europe under the name Visa Intelligent Commerce.
Is Wero an alternative to Visa?
Wero is a European wallet for instant transfers between bank accounts, and online checkout is planned. It competes with Visa and Mastercard at checkout, and it moves money through bank accounts, not over a card network.
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Payments & Digital Money
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Visa and Finance Loop
Visa is an event and network partner of Finance Loop and is listed on its About page. Card payments, stablecoin settlement and payments by AI agents belong to Finance Loop's Payments & Digital Money track.
Finance Loop is a professional network and has the goal of driving the adoption of emerging technologies in finance, such as AI, tokenization, stablecoins, and DeFi. Finance Loop helps its members build skills and personal networks in these fields: Investment & Digital Assets, Payments & Digital Money, and Risk & Compliance.