Credit card giant Visa announced on Wednesday the launch of a new product that will let consumers pay with stablecoins in six countries, including Mexico and Argentina. The offering, which Visa developed along with the Stripe-owned startup Bridge, is a significant step toward making cryptocurrency part of mainstream commerce for both merchants and consumers.
The launch, which Visa intends to expand to other countries, comes as stablecoins—blockchain-based assets that are pegged to a fiat currency like the dollar—are rapidly gaining popularity among traditional financial outlets because of how easily they can be transferred between accounts and across borders.
To illustrate how Visa’s new service will work in practice, senior vice president Rubail Birwadker gave the example of a freelance worker in Colombia who is paid in dollars from the U.S. or another country. In this case, the freelancer would receive wages in stablecoins and then use a Visa-branded card—either a physical one or a digital one held in a wallet like Apple Pay—to make purchases at a store or online.
Birwadker said the offering amounts to a reloadable card that, from the perspective of the merchant, is no different than any other Visa card, allowing them to be paid right away in their local currency. He added that many people in Latin America are already holding stablecoins as a hedge against volatility, and that Visa’s service will result in them becoming more widely used in day-to-day commerce.
“If you can figure out how to tie stablecoin spend with Visa’s off-ramp, that unlocks the case use,” said Birwadker.
This is hardly Visa’s first foray into the realm of crypto as the company, along with rival Mastercard, has for years made its so-called payment rails available to the likes of Crypto.com and other firms that offer cards tied to Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. These products, however, have only gained niche adoption since Bitcoin is volatile and spending it can create tax obligations.
The new offering—which is also being rolled out in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Chile—stands out because it is being developed around non-volatile stablecoins, and for its open-ended design around Bridge’s technology.
Rolling out stablecoins at scale
Founded by Coinbase veterans Zach Abrams and Sean Yu, Bridge launched in 2023 as a service to supply APIs and other technology for building stablecoins. Acquired last October for $1.1 billion by payment giant Stripe, Bridge describes itself as a neutral service provider.
For Visa, tapping Bridge as a partner means it can offer the new stablecoin payment service to a wide variety of third parties that can build their own apps for consumers and merchants. The companies said they expect early efforts to feature the stablecoin USDC, which is backed by Circle and Coinbase, but that they expect to accommodate other stablecoins too, as well as a variety of blockchains.
Abrams said this will prove especially appealing to firms in countries that lack complex fintech infrastructure, and will allow them to build their own version of brands like Chime or Cash App.
“Before this, in order to launch a card program, you’d need a local financial stack in every country,” said Abrams, citing the need for an aspiring financial app to find a bank partner, a card issuer, and a settlement network.
Abrams added that Bridge will be announcing major bank partners for the new Visa offering at Stripe’s Sessions event next week.
The companies expect the offerings to go live to consumers and merchants in the six Latin American countries in the next few weeks.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
