Visa and Bridge, a Stripe company, announced their global card issuance product (announced in 2025) has been expanded to allow businesses and fintech developers to offer stablecoin-linked cards.
Global Rollout and Onchain Settlement
Currently, there are over 18 countries where consumers can use these Bridge-enabled stablecoin-linked cards to pay at one of Visa’s 175 million merchant locations throughout the world. Many popular crypto platforms, including Phantom and MetaMask (crypto wallets), will be using these cards for consumers to conduct their day-to-day purchases with USDC and other stablecoins.
When first announced in 2025, the stablecoin card initiative was narrowly focused on facilitating payments only within Central and South America. The expansion of the card issuance product began after Bridge’s conditional Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) approval was granted to the company in February 2026, granting approval to form a national trust bank charter.
The Potential Benefits of the Partnership
With its stablecoin settlement pilot, Visa is trying to learn how the use of stablecoin settlement can enhance the number of ways that issuers can settle, ultimately helping the issuers to achieve operational efficiency through on-chain reconciliations, and how various infrastructure platforms, such as Bridge, can help streamline the process for businesses using blockchain technology.
Cuy Sheffield, Visa’s head of crypto, stressed: “Visa is committed to meeting businesses where they operate, and increasingly, that’s onchain. Expanding our work with Bridge gives us one more way to bring the speed, transparency and programmability of stablecoins directly into the settlement process”.
Zach Abrams, CEO of Bridge, states, “This expansion of our work with Visa will enable businesses launching their own custom stablecoins to use them seamlessly within their card programs.”
Looking Ahead
Visa (NYSE: V) is exploring the possibility of supporting Bridge-issued assets through future payment flows and how those assets might enhance Visa’s global platform and create new options for partners to settle transactions.
The partnership comes at a time when there are many different types of stablecoins being developed across the financial services industry, especially following the recently passed GENIUS Act in the United States and with Stripe’s acquisition of Bridge in February 2025.
