Visa
Visa is a company that operates an international network for digital payments. The network connects financial institutions and payment providers so that merchants can accept card payments and other digital transactions. Visa provides processing infrastructure, while participating financial institutions issue cards to their customers.
VisaNet carries transaction information between the merchant's payment provider and the institution that issued the card. Shared connections and technical rules let providers process payments without building a separate system for every merchant relationship. Banks and payment providers use the network to give customers access to digital payments through their own services.
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 31 July 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 29 April 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 2 July 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. Wero competes with Visa and Mastercard at checkout, and it moves money through bank accounts, not over a card network.
Visa and Finance Loop
Finance Loop works with Visa as an event and network partner. Card payments, stablecoin settlement and payments by AI agents belong to the Payments & Digital Money track at Finance Loop.
Partnership teams working on card tokenization, agentic commerce or stablecoin settlement can discuss relevant professional conversations with Finance Loop. Define the banking or merchant audience and your relationship objectives when requesting support for payments partnerships.
Finance Loop is a European professional network for emerging technologies in finance, with Central Europe as the current regional focus. Finance Loop helps members build skills and professional relationships across these fields: Investment & Digital Assets, Payments & Digital Money, Digital Infrastructure & Sovereignty, and Risk & Compliance.