March 3, 2026 – Global payments giant Visa is broadening its stablecoin card partnership with Stripe-owned Bridge, expanding the rollout of stablecoin-linked Visa cards and advancing efforts to settle transactions directly onchain.
The companies announced Tuesday that their joint card program, currently live in 18 countries, will expand to more than 100 countries across Europe, Asia-Pacific, Africa and the Middle East by the end of the year. The initiative initially launched in April 2025, focusing on Latin American markets including Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru and Chile.
Shift Toward Onchain Settlement
Alongside geographic expansion, Visa and Bridge are testing stablecoin settlement through Visa’s pilot program, enabling issuers and acquirers to settle transactions in stablecoins instead of traditional fiat rails.
When first introduced, Bridge processed transactions by deducting funds from users’ stablecoin balances and converting them into fiat so merchants received local currency. Under the updated structure — enabled through Bridge’s partnership with Lead Bank — transactions can now be settled directly in stablecoins onchain.
“Visa is committed to meeting businesses where they operate, and increasingly, that’s onchain,” said Cuy Sheffield, Visa’s head of crypto. He added that expanding the partnership brings the speed, transparency and programmability of stablecoins into the settlement process.
Broader Stablecoin Competition
The move underscores intensifying competition in the stablecoin payments space. Rival Mastercard recently enabled stablecoin card spending in the U.S. through the self-custodial wallet MetaMask.
Visa is also evaluating support for Bridge-issued stablecoins — digital assets programmatically created and managed by businesses using Bridge’s infrastructure, rather than issued by third parties such as Tether’s USDT or Circle’s USDC.
Bridge co-founder and CEO Zach Abrams said the expansion will allow businesses launching custom stablecoins to integrate them seamlessly into card programs, further embedding stablecoins within global payment systems.