Visa is moving stablecoins out of the settlement backroom and into consumers’ wallets. The card network announced a pilot with WeFi to test “on‑chain banking” — enabling self‑custodied, fiat‑backed stablecoins to fund everyday card payments across select countries in Europe, Asia and Latin America.
The collaboration, publicized via Chainwire, aims to show “how on‑chain value can interact with familiar payment experiences within the existing regulatory framework,” using WeFi’s infrastructure to bridge DeFi‑native assets and Visa’s merchant network. Rather than the custodial crypto‑card model that holds user balances on exchanges, WeFi positions itself as an orchestration layer that lets users keep assets in self‑custody (or hybrid custody) while still tapping regulated payment rails for spending and cross‑border use cases.
WeFi co‑founder and group CEO Maksym Sakharov framed the effort as meeting demand for money that “works seamlessly across borders, without unnecessary complexity.” The pilot will roll out region‑by‑region, starting in selected European, Asian and Latin American markets, and will depend on local regulatory approvals and issuing partnerships. At launch the focus will be on regulated, fiat‑backed stablecoins for everyday payments; other digital assets may be considered later.
For Visa, the WeFi tie‑up extends a program that already uses stablecoins behind the scenes. In April the company said it had added five new blockchains to its global stablecoin settlement pilot — bringing total supported chains to nine — and reported an annualized stablecoin settlement run rate of about $7 billion, up roughly 50% quarter‑on‑quarter. Earlier pilots let issuers and acquirers settle obligations directly with Visa in Circle’s USDC on networks such as Solana and enabled cross‑border business payments funded by stablecoins instead of pre‑positioned foreign cash.
This new front‑end focus changes the playing field: Visa and a DeFi‑native partner are exploring not just how banks settle with each other, but how users can hold, move and spend value on Layer‑2s and sidechains while card schemes keep handling UX, compliance and merchant relationships. If successful, the test could accelerate a shift in which card networks and fintechs — rather than legacy banking cores — rebuild core banking functions on‑chain, leaving traditional banks to compete over KYC, licensing and balance‑sheet roles in an increasingly protocol‑aware payments stack.
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