Visa, the global payments company, is continuing its exploration of the blockchain world by announcing plans to integrate USDC payments on the Solana blockchain. The aim of this initiative, currently in the pilot phase, is to simplify cross-border payments, notably by reducing transaction times.
Visa goes live on Solana
Payments giant Visa continues to make inroads into the blockchain ecosystem: the company has just announced that it is currently working to adopt USDC payments on the Solana (SOL) blockchain for merchants.
Visa is currently working in partnership with financial solutions companies Worldpay and Nuvei to run the pilot phase of this programme, which is said to have already enabled “millions of dollars” to flow in parallel with the programme on Ethereum (ETH), announced last December.
1/Breaking: Visa Expands Stablecoin Settlement Pilot to Solana@Visa is scaling their USDC settlement pilot to include the Solana blockchain, enabling enterprise-grade throughput at virtually no cost for Visa issuers and merchant acquirers on Solana. https://t.co/rF5ouZaISM
– Solana (@solana) September 5, 2023
Cuy Sheffield, Visa’s head of cryptocurrencies, said the new initiative would make cross-border payments much easier, particularly in terms of transaction time:
“By leveraging stablecoins like USDC and global blockchain networks like Solana and Ethereum, we are helping to improve the speed of cross-border settlements and provide a modern option for our customers to easily send or receive funds from Visa Treasury. “
Simply put, Visa wants to enable interested parties to send USDC into its treasury, and will automatically handle the transaction with the merchant through its partnership with Worldpay and Nuvei.
Visa continues to conquer the blockchain
This year, Visa has spared no expense in seizing the opportunities offered by blockchain: this interest first materialised when Cuy Sheffield announced that the firm had an “ambitious crypto roadmap” last April and that it was actively looking for young talent to conquer this ecosystem.
Later, in July, Ethereum sidechain Gnosis officially launched its Gnosis Card, a debit card designed in partnership with Visa that allows users to pay for all their everyday transactions directly from their on-chain wallet, which is quite innovative.
In any case, Jeremy Allaire, CEO of Circle, which issues the USDC, was delighted with the breakthrough we’re talking about today with Solana:
“We are excited about the USDC use cases that Visa and its partners are implementing to create fundamental blockchain innovation. […] The extension of the pilot shows how the combination of USDC and Visa innovation is paving the way for the future of payments, commerce and financial applications. “
Not to be outdone by its main rival, none other than Mastercard, the company unveiled a partnership with Stables and Circle to allow customers to pay in USDC with a virtual card wherever Mastercard was accepted, in other words almost everywhere in the world.
