‘Viable complement’ – Visa expands stablecoin rails as demand grows 50% 

Global payments provider Visa has added five more chains to its stablecoin settlement pilot program amid strong demand for on-chain rails.  Among the new additions are Circle’s Arc, Coinbase-incubated Base, Canton, Polygon, and Stripe-backed Tempo. Collectively, Visa now supports nine blockchains. In Q1 2026, Visa reported that its stablecoin settlement hit a $7B run rate, marking a 50% increase on a quarter-over-quarter (QoQ) basis. For the payments provider, the growth underscored "increasing confidence" in on-chain rails.  Rubail Birwadker, Global Head of Growth Products and Strategic Partnerships at Visa, noted that expanded multi-chain support is aimed at reflecting the users’ different needs.  Our partners are building in a multi-chain world, and they expect their options to reflect that reality. The firm noted that stablecoin settlement via on-chain rails is becoming a “viable complement” to traditional settlement rails. Stablecoins have become so compelling because it's faster and cheaper than traditional options.  Mastercard and PayPal scale stablecoin plans In fact, Visa rivals have also doubled down on their stablecoin and blockchain strategies For example, Mastercard acquired BVNK, a stablecoin infrastructure player, to scale its global payment network. The acquisition, announced in March, was worth over $1.8B.  During the same month, Mastercard unveiled a crypto partner program with 85 crypto firms, including Binance, to integrate them into its global payments network.   PayPal, another major global player in payments, took a completely different approach. It launched its own stablecoin, PYUSD, and began offering yield for users. To boost its ecosystem, it launched a P2P feature for PYUSD, Bitcoin, and other crypto for its users.  Back in 2025, PayPal unveiled a ‘Pay with crypto’ feature and slashed its cross-border fees by 90% as competition among traditional players intensified.  All other players, such as MoneyGram and Western Union, have also rolled out stablecoin support, underscoring blockchain as a key differentiator in the modern cross-border and remittances space. It remains to be seen how rivals will compete as stablecoins bring transfer fees to nearly zero. In the meantime, growing adoption has lifted the stablecoin market supply to $320 billion.  Final Summary Visa has scaled its stablecoin pilot to nine networks, including Tempo and Arc, amid surging demand and the need for more options.  Global payment competition has intensified, with rivals like Mastercard, PayPal, Western Union, and others ramping up their stablecoin strategies