Visa Just Made Stablecoins Spendable at 150M Merchants

💳 Visa Now Lets You Pay in Stablecoins — Globally

Stablecoins just got a global checkout button.

Visa has partnered with Stripe’s Bridge, a stablecoin orchestration platform, to launch a new card that lets people spend USDC, USDT, and other stablecoins anywhere Visa is accepted — that’s 150 million+ merchants worldwide.

Yes, that includes your local coffee shop, your Spotify bill, and your Uber ride.

🔁 How It Works: Crypto In, Fiat Out

Here’s the magic under the hood:

• 🪙 You hold stablecoins in your wallet
• 💳 You swipe a Bridge-enabled Visa card
• ⚙️ Bridge handles real-time crypto-to-fiat conversion
• 🛍️ The merchant gets paid in local currency, like nothing happened

Example: You’re in Colombia, spending USDC. The merchant gets Colombian pesos, and you didn’t need to touch an exchange.

“It’s the missing link between DeFi and daily life.”
— Zach Abrams, CEO of Bridge

🌎 Latin America Gets It First — And for Good Reason

The card rollout starts in:

• 🇦🇷 Argentina
• 🇨🇴 Colombia
• 🇪🇨 Ecuador
• 🇲🇽 Mexico
• 🇵🇪 Peru
• 🇨🇱 Chile

In regions battling currency instability and dollar access issues, stablecoins are already popular. This just turns them into real money.

🛠️ A Developer Dream — One API, Global Issuance

Bridge isn’t just for consumers — it’s a crypto dev toolkit disguised as a payment network.

With one integration:

• 🛠️ Devs can issue Visa cards linked to stablecoins
• 🔄 Real-time conversion handled by Bridge
• 🏦 Funds move via Lead Bank for regulatory compliance

No need to rebuild apps from scratch — Bridge turns DeFi features into usable fintech UX.

🧠 Visa’s Crypto Play: Stablecoins, Not Speculation

This isn’t Visa dipping a toe — it’s a full-on stablecoin swim.

The company has:

• 💥 Tested USDC on Ethereum & Solana
• 🤝 Partnered with Circle
• 🧱 Built blockchain infra under the hood

Now it’s putting that research into production — using Stripe’s Bridge to abstract the blockchain complexity away from users.

“This is about real payments. Not trading.”
— Jack Forestell, Chief Product Officer, Visa

🧠 TL;DR: Visa Turns Stablecoins Into Global Money

• 💳 Spend USDC, USDT via Visa at 150M merchants
• 🔄 Bridge handles conversion behind the scenes
• 🌍 Launching in Latin America first, with global expansion ahead
• 🛠️ Devs get Visa card issuing tools via API
• 🧠 Visa doubles down on stablecoins as real-world rails

Stablecoins are no longer “almost usable.”
They’re now swipeable. Welcome to the new digital dollar era.