Payment provider Visa will leverage stablecoin USDC and Solana to modernise its cross-border settlement capabilities.
Visa, one of the world’s largest payment providers, has announced it is expanding its stablecoin settlement capabilities to improve the efficiency of cross-border payments.
New pilot programs will enable merchants to receive USDC payments on the Solana network, the September 5 announcement outlines. Aside from Solana and Circle, Visa is working alongside merchant acquirers Worldpay and Nuvei to modernise the network.
Visa has already “moved millions of USDC” between its partners through Solana and Ethereum to settle fiat-denominated payments, the company stated.
The pilot builds upon the Crypto.com pilot which launched in 2021, when Visa first began testing USDC as part of its treasury operations. The payment network is one of the first to test stablecoin settlements on the issuance side.
Read more: Solana Explained | A beginner’s guide
“By leveraging stablecoins like USDC and global blockchain networks like Solana and Ethereum, we’re helping to improve the speed of cross-border settlement and providing a modern option for our clients to easily send or receive funds from Visa’s treasury,” said Cuy Sheffield, Head of Crypto, Visa.
“Visa is committed to being on the forefront of digital currency and blockchain innovation and leveraging these new technologies to help improve the way we move money,” he added.
Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire also welcomed the partnership, stating, “Circle built USDC to provide a functional digital dollar that could move at the speed of the internet to facilitate secure, reliable payments. Expanding the pilot exemplifies how pairing USDC with Visa’s innovation opens up the future of payments, commerce and financial applications.”
SOL gets a bump from the news
Following the announcement, SOL, the native token of the Solana network, jumped 6.1%, climbing from $19.34 to $20.52.
Solana’s NFT ecosystem has suffered over the past year, but the network has made huge inroads in terms of wider adoption.
On August 23, the network announced that Solana Pay, its peer-peer payment protocol, will integrate with Shopify for USDC payments.
Shopify is one of the biggest e-commerce platforms in the world, and it provides a robust transaction infrastructure for businesses to buy and sell goods online.
Read more: Solana Pay integrates with Shopify, opening gateway to Web3-based daily commerce
Merchants and consumers who use Solana Pay can also gain access to Web3 based commerce experiences, such as NFT-based loyalty programs and token-gated offerings. Direct cross-border payments are another huge advantage.
Solana Pay is already in use for some Shopify-powered merchants including MadLads, Solana’s merch store, Helius and MonkeDAO.
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