Stablecoins: Creating stronger customer value | Visa
Stablecoin strategy: How financial institutions can create better value propositions for customers
Establishing a stablecoin perspective: a 2026 strategic imperative
The growing stablecoin market capitalization in concert with the maturity of infrastructure and emerging regulatory clarity sets the stage for firms to launch innovative products and services and transform internal processes with stablecoin in 2026.
Stablecoin growth over the last 12 months
Stablecoin supply grew over 50 % in 2025 — reaching $274B in December 2025 from $186B in December 2024.¹
Transaction volume is on track to exceed $ 10 T in 2025 after adjusting for high-frequency trading wallets, smart contract addresses, and bot activity.
Active stablecoin wallets reached 316 M stablecoin wallets were active, growing steadily.
Provisions of the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) framework and the recently passed GENIUS Act in the United States provide more clarity and a level playing field for institutions participating in the Stablecoin ecosystem. While other markets have varying levels of regulatory maturity, the stage is set for global norms.
Established payment companies are rapidly announcing new products and services, developing their own technologies, as well as partnering to pull together the best of what’s available. "In 2025, Visa announced new offerings through Visa Direct pilots focused on stablecoin-enabled payments — including pre-funding and payout capabilities for Visa Direct clients. Separately, Visa continued to expand its global stablecoin settlement pilots, which give partners more choice in how they settle with Visa. Visa also highlighted several new ecosystem partnerships spanning across Visa’s business. Visa now has more than 130 card programs overlaid on stablecoin wallets.² For firms that haven’t established their points of view on stablecoin, 2026 is the year that establishing a strategy becomes an imperative.
The perfect storm of market maturity and regulatory clarity
The last two years saw stablecoins rapidly emerge as a normalized component of money movement. Stablecoin’s utility as an easily accessed store of value pegged to low volatility assets (USD, Gold, etc.), and the added advantage of instant transfer, make stablecoin uniquely useful for retail and commercial applications. Cross border money flow and inflationary hedging have emerged as key use cases globally.
Converging forces make 2026 the pivotal year for stablecoin engagement
Market scale and liquidity
Off-ramp services are now prevalent in key corridors which provide ample liquidity that institutions require. As of October 2025, more than 97% of stablecoin supply has converged around two stablecoins, USDT and USDC, and 93% of stablecoin is built on the top three established blockchains. While concerns exist regarding overweighted concentration, clear rulesets in major markets now enable banks and fintechs to pursue stablecoins issuance that will provide diversity and further stability as the market scales.
Operational efficiency
Growing confidence in stablecoin is reflected by recent moves by major financial institutions. For companies managing cross-border payments, global treasury operations, or merchant settlements, stablecoin rails offer 24/7 availability, near-instant settlement, automation and programmability. These advantages drive new revenue streams and efficiencies.
Customer adoption
Expanding active wallet addresses and accelerating transaction volumes represent actual consumers and institutions making novel choices about how value is stored and moved. Financial institutions now risk disintermediation by more nimble competitors.
Organizations on the sidelines risk loss of payment volume to blockchain-natives, inability to serve emerging customer segments, and higher capital needs than competitors leveraging faster, programmable money movement.
How to approach and adapt to the emergence of stablecoins
Developing a successful stablecoin strategy requires a systematic, multi-phase approach that balances ambition with operational reality.
Discovery
Executives must be well-educated in the underlying functions, processes, and use cases in the Stablecoin value chain to determine where they might compete. Firms should consider market trends, benefits and precautions, potential use cases, and ecosystem players, potential partners/competitors.
Analysis of strengths and gaps across products and services, internal processes, technical capabilities, existing infrastructure, as well as an analysis of customer needs is essential to making decisions around where to build, partner, or abstain.
Use-case prioritization
As firms evaluate use cases to empower new customer offerings and internal capabilities, they should consider both “where can they play?” and “where should they play?” using a structured analysis. A complex ecosystem has evolved around the issuance, custody, circulation, and redemption of stablecoin. Executives must be well-educated in the underlying functions, processes, and use cases in the value chain in order to determine where they might compete.
Through this, firms prioritize strategy based on fit: alignment with core business models, regulatory clarity, technical feasibility, competitive differentiation and financial impact.
Operating-model design and pilot deployment
A successful rollout requires a strong program, which should include:
Governance and accountability: Establish an executive steering committee, a project management office, dedicated cross-functional stakeholders, and a clear RACI matrix.
Defined operating model: Clearly outline the components, flows and integration points with intentional build-versus-partner decisions.
Agile approach: The stablecoin landscape is still evolving. Firms should take a crawl-walk-run approach as they launch pilots, establish success metrics, create feedback loops, and conduct quarterly re-prioritizations.
The strategic imperative is clear: develop a deliberate stablecoin strategy or risk competitive disadvantage. VCA launched a Stablecoin Practice in 2025, partnering with firms on winning stablecoin strategies as the industry evolves. In a recent stablecoin engagement, Anthony Sharett, president of Pathward said: "Visa Consulting and Analytics brings together Visa’s scale, expertise and specialized consultants to offer a unique service, and Pathward appreciates the invitation to be one of the first banks to explore this work with them. Stablecoins could provide innovative solutions for the financial services sector, and Visa’s team delivered impressive work, insights and actionable recommendations for businesses exploring them."
“Stablecoins could provide innovative solutions for the financial services sector, and Visa’s team delivered impressive work, insights and actionable recommendations for businesses exploring them.”
— Anthony Sharett, President, Pathward
Ways VCA can help
Discovery - Market landscape/opportunity assessment - Visa University standard/bespoke course development
Use-case prioritization
- Prioritization frameworks
- Sizing/ROI Analysis
Target operating model design
- Capability gap analysis and roadmap development
- Target operating model design and go-to-market and partnership considerations
- Visa Marketing Services
- Product and UX research/design
- Potential partner/vendor assessment and recommendations
POC Deployment
Team up with an advisor to get started
To learn how to grow your business with the support of the Visa global network, feel free to reach out to our team.
Ten payment priorities shaping 2026
From stablecoin strategy to cybersecurity and agentic commerce — learn what it will take for payments-industry leaders to stay ahead of the strategic curve this year.
- Visa Onchain Analytics Dashboard
- Visa Unveils New Global Stablecoins Advisory Practice, Dec 15, 2025, Visa Unveils New Global Stablecoins Advisory Practice
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