Visa Turns Stablecoin Card Growth Into a New Onchain Credit Market
Visa is pushing deeper into onchain finance by connecting its settlement data with blockchain lending infrastructure, giving stablecoin-linked card issuers another way to fund daily payment obligations.
Summary:
- More than 160 stablecoin-linked card programs now operate across Visa’s network.
- VisaNet settlement records can be combined with blockchain data to help lenders assess borrowers.
- Credit Coop has financed more than $2.5 billion of settlement volume through the model since 2023.
- The approach turns card receivables into collateral for programmable, stablecoin-denominated credit.
Visa Is Targeting the Funding Gap Behind Stablecoin Cards
A stablecoin card can make spending digital dollars feel almost identical to using a conventional debit or credit card. Behind that transaction, however, the issuer still has to fund its obligations to Visa.
That creates a timing problem. A card program may owe settlement funds before it has collected the corresponding money from cardholders. Large issuers typically solve this through established warehouse facilities or securitization, but those structures become less economical for younger companies that need only a few million dollars and draw capital on a daily basis.
Stablecoin programs add another complication: many operate continuously through weekends and holidays, while traditional funding remains tied to banking schedules.
Visa’s new approach addresses that mismatch by allowing authorized settlement information from VisaNet to become part of the underwriting process. Lenders can compare the payment network’s records with onchain transaction history instead of relying solely on borrower-supplied information.
This is a narrower use of DeFi than lending against volatile crypto collateral. The borrower is a payments business, the collateral consists of settlement receivables, and the financing exists to meet a specific operating expense.
Credit Coop Turns Receivables Into Programmable Collateral
The mechanics are already being tested through Visa’s work with Credit Coop.
Credit Coop provides a stablecoin-denominated revolving facility secured by settlement receivables. Its Spigot smart contract sits between incoming customer proceeds and the borrower’s operating account, automatically directing the amount needed for repayment before releasing the remaining funds.
It functions similarly to a controlled lockbox used in conventional asset-backed lending, but enforcement occurs through code.
Daily Visa settlement files add another control. Facility sizing, disbursements and repayment verification can be checked against Visa’s records alongside the blockchain transaction history.
That combination addresses two problems that frequently make lending to young fintech companies expensive: limited historical data and costly manual administration.
Credit Coop’s operating record provides an early indication of how the structure performs. Since 2023, participating facilities have financed more than $2.5 billion in cumulative settlement volume, processing over 3,000 borrowing events and 9,000 repayments onchain. Visa says there have been no defaults across those facilities.
There is an important qualification. The operating figures are supplied by Visa and Credit Coop, and the zero-default record has not been independently audited in the material reviewed. The history is useful evidence that the model is functioning, but it should not be treated as proof of how the credit structure would perform through a broader downturn or a major borrower failure.
Rain Shows What the Credit Line Does in Practice
Rain has provided the longest-running example.
The Visa Principal Member has used Credit Coop financing since August 2023. When a settlement obligation arrives, Rain draws from its revolving facility. Cardholder repayments subsequently pass through the smart-contract structure, servicing the debt and replenishing the available credit.
Approximately $2 billion of Rain’s settlement volume has been financed this way, involving more than 2,000 borrowing events and 7,000 repayments.
READ MORE: Stablecoin Demand Can Weaken Local Currencies, BOK Study Finds
The more interesting test is what happens when a borrower outgrows the structure.
Karta, a U.S. premium credit-card program operating under Rain’s BIN, initially used Credit Coop while establishing its payment history. In June 2026, it secured $140 million of financing, including a $125 million institutional credit facility from Community Investment Management.
That progression suggests onchain credit does not have to compete directly with institutional lending. It can occupy an earlier stage of the financing cycle, helping smaller programs establish a record before moving into larger conventional facilities.
A Huge Onchain Lending Market Has Barely Reached Payments
The potential capital pool is already substantial.
Visa’s Onchain Analytics Dashboard estimates that more than $694 billion in stablecoin-denominated loans have moved through blockchain lending protocols since 2020. That is cumulative transaction volume rather than currently outstanding debt, and much of it reflects capital circulating within crypto markets.
The new model gives some of that liquidity a route toward a recognizable commercial asset: payment receivables.
That distinction could prove important for lenders. Instead of relying primarily on crypto collateral whose value can fall alongside the broader market, settlement financing is linked to cash flows generated by card activity.
It does not eliminate credit risk. A card program can still experience deteriorating receivables, fraud, operational problems or insufficient customer repayments. Smart contracts can automate enforcement, but they cannot make weak collateral economically sound.
Visa’s contribution is therefore less about providing the capital itself and more about improving the information and infrastructure around the loan.
The Next Step Is Credit That Arrives Only When Settlement Is Due
Visa and Credit Coop are also working toward just-in-time financing.
Under the proposed structure, a program would not need to draw a larger facility ahead of settlement and leave some of the proceeds idle. Its daily Visa settlement file could instead trigger a stablecoin disbursement equal to the net amount owed.
Capital would remain deployed for hours rather than days, while lender exposure could track actual settlement requirements instead of the borrower’s entire credit limit.
That could become increasingly relevant as stablecoin card activity expands. Visa reports that payment volume across its stablecoin-linked programs has grown nearly 200% year over year, while stablecoin settlement has reached an annualized run rate above $20 billion, more than 15 times its level a year earlier.
Those figures establish the scale of the opportunity, but they do not yet establish the scale of onchain credit demand. The $2.5 billion financed through Credit Coop remains the more relevant benchmark for the lending model itself.
The next evidence to watch is therefore not another card-program milestone. It is whether more issuers adopt receivables-backed onchain facilities, whether the zero-default record survives as the borrower pool expands, and whether institutional lenders eventually treat blockchain-generated repayment histories as credible underwriting data.
If that happens, Visa’s experiment could connect two markets that have largely developed separately: stablecoin liquidity already circulating onchain and the short-term working capital required to settle everyday payments.
The information presented in this article is intended for informational purposes only and should not be interpreted as financial, investment, or trading advice. Coinspress.com does not promote or advocate for any particular investment strategy, asset, or cryptocurrency project. Cryptocurrency markets are highly volatile and unpredictable – always perform your own research and seek guidance from a qualified financial professional before making any investment decisions.
Alexander Stefanov
Reporter at CoinsPress
Alex is Editor-in-Chief of Coinspress and co-founder of Millennial Media Group, with nearly a decade of experience covering financial markets - crypto first, then everything else. It started in 2016 with Bitcoin. Like most people at the time, he didn't fully understand it - so he kept digging. Blockchain, tokenomics, the projects, the cycles. That curiosity never stopped, and eventually pulled him into traditional markets too: equities, commodities, macro. Not because he left crypto behind, but because you can't properly understand one without the other. What drives him is straightforward: he wants to know why something is happening, not just that it's happening. Most market coverage stops at the headline - price up, price down, here's a chart. Alex finds that kind of reporting actively unhelpful. If you walk away from an article without understanding the mechanism behind the move, what did you actually learn? He holds a degree in Tourism from New Bulgarian University - not the most obvious path into financial markets, but markets have a way of pulling in people who are simply too curious to stay out. He has authored over 200 in-depth analyses and more than 10,000 articles across crypto and traditional finance. He still thinks every day in markets teaches him something new. That's probably why he hasn't stopped.
