Visa is taking another step towards connecting blockchain-based finance with mainstream payments, introducing an onchain credit model that uses VisaNet settlement data to help stablecoin-linked card programmes access working capital. Rather than positioning blockchain lending as a separate financial ecosystem, the initiative brings payment performance data, smart contracts and onchain liquidity into the financing process behind everyday card transactions. The development points to a potentially important shift in digital finance: blockchain infrastructure is beginning to move beyond trading and asset transfer into the less visible funding mechanisms that keep payment businesses operating and growing.
Visa Connects Payment Data With Onchain Lending
Visa said on September 8 that its new approach combines VisaNet settlement data with blockchain-based lending infrastructure, giving participating lenders additional information to assess financing opportunities for stablecoin-linked card programmes and fintech companies.
The model addresses a longstanding challenge for emerging payment companies. Businesses experiencing rapid transaction growth can require substantial working capital to fund settlement obligations, but conventional lenders may require lengthy operating histories, significant scale or manual underwriting before extending credit.
Visa’s approach introduces payment settlement data into that decision-making process. With appropriate customer authorisation, lenders can use information about how a card programme is performing alongside onchain transaction records to evaluate financing and provide capital.
Rubail Birwadker, Global Head of Growth Products and Partnerships at Visa, said stablecoins are creating opportunities to reconsider not only how money moves but also the infrastructure supporting payments. Visa sees the combination of trusted payment data and onchain technology as a way to make liquidity more transparent, programmable and better aligned with increasingly continuous digital commerce.
Moving Onchain Lending Into Payment Infrastructure
Onchain lending has developed into a sizeable market, but much of its growth has remained closely connected to crypto-native activity.
According to Visa’s Onchain Analytics Dashboard, more than $694 billion in stablecoin-denominated loans have moved through onchain lending protocols since 2020. These markets can operate continuously, allowing lending, collateral management and repayment to occur without traditional banking-hour restrictions.
Visa’s initiative attempts to connect some of those capabilities with businesses involved in mainstream payment activity.
That distinction is significant. Instead of using blockchain primarily to originate loans against crypto assets, the model can finance settlement obligations associated with actual card transactions. In effect, Visa is exploring whether payment receivables and real-time operating data can support a new form of programmable working-capital financing.
The development also comes as stablecoins become increasingly integrated into established payment networks. Visa said it now supports more than 160 stablecoin-linked card programmes, with payment volume across those programmes increasing nearly 200% year over year. Its stablecoin settlement volume has also exceeded a $20 billion annualised run rate, representing growth of more than 15 times year over year.
Credit Coop Provides an Early Test Case
Visa highlighted its work with Credit Coop as an early implementation of the model.
Credit Coop provides working capital and settlement financing to stablecoin-linked card programmes, using smart contracts to automate elements including funding, collateral management and repayment. With customer permission, the company combines Visa settlement information with blockchain transaction data to assess programme performance and facilitate financing.
According to Visa, the model has supported more than $2.5 billion in cumulative financed settlement volume since 2023, with no defaults reported across participating facilities. More than 3,000 borrowing events and 9,000 repayments have also been processed programmatically onchain.
Chris Walker, Founder and CEO of Credit Coop, said settlement receivables have historically provided payment companies with valuable collateral, but lenders have lacked an effective way of observing their performance in real time.
Connecting payment-network data with blockchain infrastructure potentially changes that equation. Financing can be evaluated against current transaction performance, while repayment can be incorporated directly into settlement flows rather than relying entirely on separate manual processes.
Payment Data Could Become Part of the Credit Infrastructure
The broader significance of Visa’s initiative may lie in the role transaction data begins to play in lending.
Traditional credit decisions generally depend on financial statements, historical performance, credit scores and other periodically updated information. Payment networks, by contrast, can observe transaction and settlement activity continuously.
Combining that information with programmable lending infrastructure potentially allows credit decisions to become more responsive to how a business is actually performing.
For fast-growing fintech and payment companies, that could eventually create financing arrangements where available credit expands or contracts according to transaction activity, collateral positions and settlement performance. Smart contracts could automate parts of disbursement and repayment while maintaining an auditable record of activity.
It also demonstrates how blockchain infrastructure can become increasingly invisible to the end customer. A consumer using a stablecoin-linked card may have no awareness that onchain credit is helping finance the settlement process behind the transaction.
Visa Expands Its Stablecoin Strategy
The initiative forms part of Visa’s wider effort to build infrastructure connecting stablecoins with conventional payment systems.
The company has been expanding stablecoin settlement capabilities, stablecoin-linked cards and services for financial institutions, alongside the recently introduced Visa Stablecoin Platform.
The direction suggests that payment networks increasingly see stablecoins not simply as another payment method but as infrastructure capable of supporting settlement, treasury and liquidity functions.
Onchain credit adds another layer. If payment companies can borrow against settlement flows using programmable infrastructure, blockchain begins to support not only the movement of digital money but also the financing required to keep that money moving.
For banks, payment processors and fintech companies, this could become an important area to watch. The convergence of payment data, tokenised assets and programmable credit may eventually produce financing models that operate continuously alongside real-time payment infrastructure rather than according to traditional lending and settlement cycles.
What it means for the industry
- Onchain lending is moving closer to mainstream payments. Visa’s model connects blockchain-based credit with card settlement activity rather than limiting it to crypto-native borrowing.
- Payment data could become increasingly valuable for underwriting. Real-time settlement performance can give lenders a more current view of a payment company’s operating activity.
- Working-capital financing could become more programmable. Smart contracts can automate funding, collateral management and repayment as part of the settlement process.
- Stablecoin infrastructure is expanding beyond payments. Lending, liquidity and treasury services are emerging alongside stablecoin settlement and card programmes.
- Blockchain may become less visible as adoption grows. Customers may increasingly use financial products supported by onchain infrastructure without interacting directly with blockchain technology.
- Banks and payment providers face a broader infrastructure shift. The convergence of traditional payment data and programmable finance could create new models for credit and liquidity provision.
Article Source: Visa
