- Visa extends USDC-based settlement to CEMEA through a strategic partnership with Aquanow.
- The collaboration uses Aquanow’s digital asset infrastructure to reduce costs, friction and settlement times.
- Visa has already reached an annualised stablecoin settlement volume above $2.5 billion.
- The move signals a broader shift toward blockchain-native rails for real-time, global payments.
As demand keeps growing for faster and more cost-efficient cross-border payments, Visa is expanding its use of stablecoins in a new partnership with Aquanow. The collaboration focuses on streamlining how money moves behind the scenes, bringing blockchain-based settlement closer to the mainstream while keeping a low profile on the consumer side.
By combining Visa’s global payments network with Aquanow’s digital asset infrastructure, the two companies aim to enable issuers and acquirers to settle transactions in approved stablecoins such as USDC. The initiative is positioned as a way to cut operational frictions, trim fees and, above all, reduce settlement times from days to near real time across multiple regions.
Visa expands stablecoin settlement across CEMEA with Aquanow
The new phase of Visa’s strategy centres on the region that covers Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa (CEMEA). Through the integration of Aquanow’s infrastructure, institutions connected to Visa in these markets will be able to settle certain obligations using selected stablecoins, rather than relying exclusively on traditional bank transfers.
According to Visa, the partnership is designed to support 365-day settlement capabilities, even when conventional banking rails are closed on weekends or holidays. This always-on availability is one of the main selling points of blockchain-based money movement, especially for institutions that must reconcile payments across time zones and regulatory jurisdictions.
On Aquanow’s side, the company contributes its experience operating blockchain-native liquidity and settlement layers. Its role involves handling the digital asset plumbing that sits between fiat currencies, stablecoins and on-chain transactions, allowing Visa’s network partners to tap into stablecoin rails without having to build that infrastructure from scratch.
For Visa, this step fits into a broader push to digitise the back end of money movement, rather than changing how everyday cardholders interact with payments. Consumers may continue to use cards and familiar checkout experiences, while the underlying settlement between financial institutions can shift toward tokenised assets running on public or permissioned blockchains.
The initiative also seeks to answer the growing pressure from banks, fintechs and payment providers in CEMEA that are looking for cheaper, quicker alternatives to legacy cross-border transfers. By plugging stablecoins into the settlement layer, Visa and Aquanow aim to give these players a way to move value more fluidly, while preserving compliance and risk controls expected from a global payment network.
Building on Visa’s early experiments with USDC settlement
Visa is not starting from zero with this initiative. In 2023, the company became one of the first major payment networks to run a live pilot using USDC for settlement. That early test phase allowed selected clients to meet their settlement obligations in the USDC stablecoin instead of using only fiat through conventional correspondent banking channels.
Since that pilot went live, Visa reports that monthly volumes have grown to an annualised rate above $2.5 billion in stablecoin-based settlement. While that figure is still small compared with the total volume processed by the card giant, it signals that there is real traction from institutions willing to try blockchain rails for part of their back-office operations.
These experiments helped Visa refine how it integrates digital asset flows into its treasury and risk framework. Managing stablecoin reserves, monitoring counterparties and keeping up with regulatory expectations are all areas where the company has been stress-testing new processes before rolling them out at a broader scale.
The partnership with Aquanow builds on that groundwork by coupling Visa’s internal lessons with a specialist provider of digital asset infrastructure. Aquanow’s technology is meant to interface with multiple blockchains and liquidity venues, giving Visa more flexibility in how it sources, routes and settles stablecoin transfers on behalf of its clients.
For institutional users, this means the potential to reduce reliance on slow, fragmented cross-border banking rails, while still interfacing with a trusted brand and established compliance processes. The appearance for end users may stay the same, but the path money takes between institutions could become more direct and less dependent on legacy systems.
Aquanow’s role in Visa’s shift toward blockchain-native settlement
Beyond the headlines, a large part of the partnership is about scaling blockchain settlement to institutional volumes. Aquanow brings in the technical stack necessary to handle higher transaction throughput on-chain, which is essential if card networks plan to route a meaningful slice of their flows through stablecoins.
Visa has been open about its intention to keep exploring blockchain as a core part of future payment channels. Rather than treating digital assets as a side experiment, the company has been focusing on how tokenised value can help upgrade the plumbing that powers its network. Aquanow’s infrastructure acts as a bridge between this vision and day-to-day execution.
The collaboration aims to ensure that institutions can access robust, enterprise-grade connections to blockchains without each bank or fintech having to manage wallet infrastructure, key custody or direct integrations with multiple chains. Aquanow handles much of that complexity, while Visa offers the user-facing network and settlement framework.
Industry observers have noted that moves like this suggest a pivot toward “native” blockchain settlement rails, at least for certain transaction types. That does not necessarily mean replacing all existing systems overnight, but it does indicate a direction in which more and more high-volume payments might be cleared and settled through tokenised mechanisms over time.
The partnership could also encourage other financial institutions to experiment with their own blockchain-based workflows, whether for treasury, cross-border payouts or B2B settlements. As large networks build proven models, smaller players often feel more comfortable following with their own pilots and integrations.
Why stablecoins are becoming central to real-time global payments
For companies sending funds across borders, stablecoins can help reduce settlement delays that tie up working capital for days. When transactions close more quickly, firms enjoy better liquidity and can manage their cash cycles with greater precision, something especially relevant for businesses operating in multiple currencies and markets.
Visa’s decision to lean more heavily on stablecoins for settlement reflects growing interest from banks, payment providers and fintechs that are dissatisfied with slow wire transfers. Traditional infrastructure often struggles with time zone differences, cut-off times and the complexity of correspondent banking, all of which add cost and uncertainty.
By integrating stablecoins into its settlement layer, Visa can offer its partners a way to conduct near real-time, blockchain-based transfers behind the scenes, while still presenting familiar interfaces to merchants and cardholders. Aquanow supplies the connectivity and operational tooling that make these flows manageable at scale.
This model also enables 24/7 settlement windows, an increasingly important feature in a global economy where e-commerce, online platforms and digital services operate beyond the limits of local banking hours. Institutions gain the flexibility to move value when they need to, rather than waiting for the next business day.
A turning point for financial infrastructure and settlement speed
For the broader fintech landscape, the Visa-Aquanow alliance is being watched as a test case for large-scale, stablecoin-enabled settlement. It illustrates how major incumbents are starting to adopt blockchain in ways that go beyond proofs of concept and into production-grade processes.
Faster settlement does more than simply improve user satisfaction. It can reshape how global businesses structure their finances and manage risk. When funds arrive quickly and reliably, companies may be able to shorten supply chains, negotiate different payment terms or expand into new markets with less working capital locked up.
The partnership also provides a boost to developers and payment providers building on blockchain-based payment rails. Having a large card network validating this infrastructure can encourage more investment in tools, compliance solutions and integration services tailored to stablecoin flows.
Visa contributes its brand recognition, regulatory relationships and global reach, while Aquanow supplies deep expertise in the digital asset domain. Together, they are positioning stablecoins not as a speculative instrument, but as a functional tool to make the settlement layer more efficient, transparent and adaptable.
Market participants will be paying attention to how this rollout performs in the CEMEA region and whether volumes continue to grow beyond the already notable $2.5 billion annualised rate seen in earlier pilots. The outcome could influence how quickly other large financial institutions accelerate their own adoption of tokenised settlement mechanisms.
Against this backdrop, the alliance between Visa and Aquanow stands out as a practical example of how traditional payment networks and blockchain-native firms can collaborate to modernise financial infrastructure. By embedding stablecoins into the settlement process and keeping user-facing experiences familiar, the partnership attempts to blend innovation with continuity, offering institutions a pathway to quicker, more flexible cross-border money movement without abandoning the safeguards they are used to.
