Even as policymakers continue to refine the rules of the road for stablecoins, earnings season offered a clearer view of how the payment networks are already moving from concept to execution. That shift was evident in this week’s results from Visa and Mastercard, where management teams paired financial performance with disclosures on stablecoin settlement and emerging use cases. For Visa, the fiscal first quarter brought measurable traction. The company reported an annualized global stablecoin settlement run rate of $4.6 billion and said it now enables stablecoin card issuance in more than 50 countries. Ryan McInerney, Visa’s CEO, framed the effort as part of a broader push to connect digital assets to everyday payments. “Stablecoins have tremendous growth and disruption potential but are still in the very early stages of adoption for payments use cases,” McInerney said during the conference call with analysts. “Visa’s goal remains clear: build the secure and seamless interoperable layer between stablecoins and traditional fiat payment at scale across the world.” Visa outlined several concrete steps taken during the quarter. The company expanded stablecoin settlement with USDC into the United States to improve speed and liquidity for banks and FinTechs, and it launched a global stablecoins advisory practice to help clients with strategy, market entry planning and technology enablement. McInerney said Visa is also piloting Visa Direct stablecoin payouts, allowing U.S. platforms to send funds directly to workers’ and users’ stablecoin wallets. Visa management emphasized that these efforts are not substitutive to other parts of the business.…
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