Visa Launches Platform to Help Institutions Mint and Manage Stablecoins

Visa has introduced an enterprise platform that allows financial institutions, fintech companies and other payment providers to mint, burn, manage and transfer stablecoins through infrastructure provided by the global payments company.

The Visa Stablecoin Platform, known as VSP, brings wallet infrastructure, operational controls and connections to Visa’s existing payment services into a single environment. Visa said the platform is intended to help institutions turn their interest in stablecoins into operational products and payment flows, including treasury, settlement and customer-facing use cases.

Initial access is being provided through a limited beta involving selected clients, with geographic and transaction-volume restrictions.

Bringing Stablecoin Operations Under One System

VSP initially provides access to Open USD, or OUSD, allowing participating institutions to mint, burn, manage and transfer the stablecoin through Visa’s infrastructure. Institutions can use Visa’s Wallet-as-a-Service offering or integrate an existing wallet provider, according to the company.

The system also allows clients to link bank accounts and establish internal controls governing how digital assets are moved. Those controls include user permissions, transfer allowlists, audit records and dual approval, under which one employee initiates a sensitive transaction and another authorized employee approves it.

Such features address an operational problem facing established financial institutions interested in blockchain-based payments. Moving stablecoins involves more than executing a transaction on a blockchain. Banks and payment providers also need to manage private-key security, authorization procedures, transaction records, compliance requirements and the conversion between bank deposits and on-chain assets.

Visa Chief Product and Strategy Officer Jack Forestell said: “Stablecoins are opening up a new layer of programmable money, but for most institutions the hard part isn’t the concept, it’s the operational reality. With the Visa Stablecoin Platform, we’re giving our clients a single place to mint, move and manage stablecoin operations with the controls, security and network reach they already expect from Visa. It’s how we help them turn interest in stablecoins into real products and real payment flows.”

Open USD Provides the First Supported Asset

VSP will initially provide connectivity to Open USD, a dollar-denominated stablecoin announced by Open Standard in June. The project is being developed as shared infrastructure for financial institutions, payment companies, technology platforms and digital asset businesses.

Open Standard said companies will be able to mint and redeem OUSD without fees or artificial volume limits. The organization also plans to distribute most of the income generated from the stablecoin’s reserves to participating businesses, after deducting a management fee for operational costs.

Governance is intended to be shared among participating companies rather than controlled entirely by one issuer. More than 140 businesses were named in the initial announcement, including Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Stripe, BlackRock, BNY, Standard Chartered, Emirates NBD, Coinbase and Shopify.

Open Standard has said OUSD will become operational later in 2026. Visa’s description of VSP therefore represents early institutional access and integration work rather than evidence that the stablecoin is already broadly circulating in public markets.

Visa clients using VSP will be able to mint and burn OUSD while managing the asset alongside their treasury, settlement and liquidity operations. The platform is also designed to support the movement of money between bank accounts and blockchain wallets, creating an on-ramp and off-ramp between conventional deposits and tokenized dollars.

Visa Connects Stablecoins to Its Payment Network

Rather than treating stablecoins as a separate product, Visa is positioning VSP as an access layer connecting blockchain-based money with its wider payments business. The company said the platform is interoperable with its stablecoin settlement services, stablecoin-linked cards and digital money movement capabilities.

The strategy could allow an institution to manage stablecoins through VSP and then connect those assets to other Visa services. A fintech company, as one example, could hold or transfer stablecoins through the platform while developing card, treasury or payout products that use Visa’s existing network.

VSP builds on several years of digital asset development by the payments company. Visa first experimented with settlement using Circle’s USDC in 2021 and later expanded the program across additional blockchain networks and markets.

The company launched USDC settlement for selected US institutions in December 2025. Cross River Bank and Lead Bank were among the initial participants, settling Visa-related obligations in USDC over the Solana blockchain.

Institutional Adoption Remains the Central Test

The platform’s beta phase will give Visa and its clients an opportunity to assess how stablecoins function inside existing banking and payment operations. Visa said feedback from participating institutions will shape where and how VSP is made available more widely.

Commercial adoption will depend on more than technical access. Institutions must determine whether stablecoins deliver meaningful advantages in areas such as liquidity management, cross-border transfers, settlement outside conventional banking hours and the automation of payment conditions.

Regulation, reserve arrangements, blockchain reliability and compliance obligations will also influence which institutions proceed from testing to deployment. Visa has emphasized controls and interoperability in its description of VSP, reflecting the risk and governance requirements that distinguish institutional financial infrastructure from consumer crypto applications.

The launch does not mean Visa is replacing its conventional card network with blockchain rails. Instead, the company is building infrastructure intended to keep its network relevant as banks and fintech companies explore new forms of tokenized money.

VSP places Visa between the traditional bank account and the on-chain wallet, offering institutions a managed route into stablecoin operations while connecting those activities to payment services they may already use.