Visa Taps Onchain Lending to Finance Card Payments

Visa has announced an innovative initiative that combines its traditional payment settlement data with blockchain-based lending infrastructure. The goal is to allow lenders to underwrite and finance obligations tied to card payments using combined offchain and onchain records.

The company will link VisaNet settlement data with onchain transaction data, enabling lenders to evaluate borrowers and provide financing against payment obligations.

Visa cited Credit Coop as an early example of this approach. The protocol has been used since 2023 to fund business settlement needs, with more than $2.5 billion in cumulative settlement volume since then.

The company's stablecoin-linked card ecosystem is growing rapidly, with payment volume up nearly 200% year over year. Visa also noted that its stablecoin settlement volume has exceeded a $20 billion annualized run rate, over 15 times year-ago levels.