Visa and WeFi Kick Off Stablecoin Card-Payments Pilot Across Europe, Asia and Latin America
Visa is taking stablecoins beyond back-end settlement and into everyday spending. The payments giant said it is launching a pilot with WeFi to test "on-chain banking", allowing consumers to use self-custodied, fiat-backed stablecoins to fund routine card purchases in selected markets across Europe, Asia and Latin America.
Announced via Chainwire, the initiative is designed to demonstrate how on-chain value can plug into familiar card payment experiences within existing regulatory requirements. WeFi's infrastructure will serve as the bridge between DeFi-native assets and Visa's global merchant network.
Unlike traditional crypto card programs that keep customer balances in custodial accounts at exchanges, WeFi describes itself as an orchestration layer that supports self-custody (or hybrid custody) while still accessing regulated payment rails for point-of-sale spending and cross-border use cases. WeFi co-founder and group CEO Maksym Sakharov said the goal is to meet demand for money that "works seamlessly across borders" without added complexity.
The rollout will proceed market by market and is contingent on local regulatory approvals and issuing partnerships. At launch, the pilot will focus on regulated, fiat-backed stablecoins for everyday payments, with the possibility of supporting other digital assets later.
For Visa, the partnership builds on stablecoin initiatives already running behind the scenes. In April, Visa said it added five new blockchains to its global stablecoin settlement pilot, bringing the total to nine supported chains. The company also reported an annualized stablecoin settlement run rate of about $7 billion, up roughly 50% quarter-on-quarter.
Earlier programs enabled issuers and acquirers to settle obligations with Visa directly in Circle's USDC on networks such as Solana, and supported cross-border business payments funded by stablecoins instead of pre-positioned foreign currency.
This pilot shifts the emphasis to the consumer front end. Visa and a DeFi-native partner are testing how users can hold, move and spend value on Layer-2 networks and sidechains, while card schemes continue to manage user experience, compliance and merchant relationships.
If successful, the model could speed up a broader transition in which card networks and fintechs rebuild core banking functions on-chain, leaving traditional banks to compete more on KYC, licensing and balance-sheet capabilities as payments infrastructure becomes increasingly protocol-aware.
