Visa launches stablecoin platform

Visa announced the Visa Stablecoin Platform (VSP), infrastructure designed to let financial institutions operate stablecoins under the governance of Visa's own network.

The platform is built to resolve the complexity of blockchain infrastructure, enabling institutions to launch stablecoin products without building custody, wallet and compliance tooling from scratch.

VSP launches integrated with Open USD, a stablecoin issued by the Open Standard global consortium, bringing together around 140 companies. Among them: Mastercard, Stripe, BlackRock, Coinbase and Brazilian players Itaú and Bradesco.

According to Jack Forestell, Visa's Chief Product and Strategy Officer, the platform will make implementation easier for the financial sector. "For most institutions, the hard part isn't the concept, it's the operational reality," he said.

What VSP does and how it works

VSP is not a new stablecoin. It is a platform that provides operational infrastructure to interact with stablecoins.

• Integration into Visa's network: designed to enable connectivity of stablecoins into Visa's network and tools, allowing institutions to embed stablecoin capabilities into existing payment flows, treasury operations and settlement processes.

• Access to Open USD: seamlessly integrated into Open Standard, clients have an easy way to mint, burn, manage and transfer Open USD.

• On-chain wallet infrastructure: introduces Wallet-as-a-Service, offering the controls and workflows needed to make stablecoins usable in practice.

• Built for trust: dual-control approval workflows requiring one user to initiate and a second to approve, comprehensive audit logging and allow lists for transfer controls.

VSP is interoperable with Visa's existing stablecoin offerings, including stablecoin settlement, stablecoin-linked cards and stablecoin money movement. Together, these capabilities provide a full stack that helps financial institutions come on-chain and enables crypto platforms to access Visa's global network.

Why VSP matters for the stablecoin market

Visa operates in more than 200 countries and processes trillions of dollars in annual volume. Meanwhile, its stablecoin settlement infrastructure already reached a $4.5 billion annualized run rate as of January 2026.

VSP is not just technology. It is distribution. Visa understands that adoption does not depend only on the benefits stablecoins generate, but on removing complexity and earning institutional trust.

Most banks and regulated financial institutions cannot or will not adopt stablecoins without a trusted, regulated intermediary absorbing the operational and compliance complexity.

Visa's network relationships with those institutions convert VSP from a product announcement into a distribution channel for Open USD that no other consortium member can replicate.

How Unblock positions itself

As the stablecoin infrastructure landscape expands, companies building payment products need a way to connect stablecoins to local payment rails today. Unblock provides that infrastructure through a single API, covering markets in Latin America, the United States and Europe.