Visa Stablecoin Pilot Adds Polygon, Base, 3 More

Visa announced on April 29, 2026 that it is adding five blockchains to its global stablecoin settlement pilot, expanding the program to nine supported networks and pairing the rollout with a reported $7 billion annualized settlement run rate.

The newly supported blockchains are Arc, Base, Canton, Polygon, and Tempo. They join four networks Visa was already leveraging for stablecoin settlement: Avalanche, Ethereum, Solana, and Stellar.

Visa Adds Five New Blockchains to Its Stablecoin Settlement Pilot

Visa’s expansion brings the pilot to nine blockchains total, covering a mix of Layer 1 networks, Layer 2 scaling solutions, and enterprise-oriented chains. The move is a settlement infrastructure update, not a new consumer product launch.

Rubail Birwadker, a Visa executive overseeing the initiative, framed the expansion around partner demand. “Our partners are building in a multi-chain world, and they expect their options to reflect that reality,” Birwadker said.

The pilot’s scope now spans public EVM-compatible chains alongside networks designed for regulated financial institutions. Canton, for example, is positioned around capital-markets use cases, while Base and Polygon serve broader decentralized application ecosystems.

Why Polygon and Base Matter in Visa’s Multi-Chain Expansion

Among the five additions, Polygon and Base are the most widely recognized by crypto users. Polygon published an official confirmation stating that Visa partners can now settle stablecoins on its network, underscoring how the integration fits into Polygon’s broader push toward real-world payment infrastructure. The confirmation came shortly after Meta announced USDC creator payouts on Polygon, adding another institutional use case for the chain.

Base, the Coinbase-incubated Layer 2, currently holds roughly $6.2 billion in total value locked, while Polygon sits at approximately $1.3 billion. The gap reflects different ecosystem profiles, but both networks carry meaningful stablecoin activity that makes them practical settlement rails.

Arc, Canton, and Tempo round out the expansion with less consumer-facing but strategically relevant coverage. Canton targets regulated capital markets, while Arc and Tempo extend Visa’s reach into newer blockchain environments. The five-chain addition signals that Visa is building optionality rather than picking a single settlement layer.

Other coverage of the announcement, including reporting from PYMNTS, confirmed the chain names and growth figures but did not quantify the on-chain scale of the newly added EVM networks, leaving readers without context for why these specific rails matter.

What Visa’s $7 Billion Run Rate Signals, and What It Doesn’t

Visa said the pilot reached a $7 billion annualized stablecoin settlement run rate, up 50% from the prior quarter. That figure makes the network expansion more than a technical integration story; it reflects growing commercial volume flowing through blockchain-based settlement channels.

The company also disclosed more than 130 stablecoin-linked card programs operating across more than 50 countries. Those programs span regions including Latin America and the Caribbean, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Central Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

The expansion arrived as a corporate pilot update rather than a new regulatory filing. That distinction matters: pilot-stage growth, even at a $7 billion annualized pace, does not equate to universal stablecoin settlement adoption across Visa’s full network. The figures represent a fast-growing but still bounded program.

Still, the 50% quarter-over-quarter increase suggests that institutional demand for stablecoin settlement is accelerating, not plateauing. The trajectory comes during a period when broader crypto markets have faced volatility, with the Fear and Greed Index sitting at 29, indicating a fearful market environment. That Visa is expanding infrastructure commitments during a cautious market period may reflect enterprise-level conviction that stablecoin settlement rails will see sustained institutional use regardless of short-term sentiment.

For payment companies and fintech platforms evaluating stablecoin integration, Visa’s multi-chain approach offers a practical signal. Rather than consolidating around a single blockchain, the company is distributing settlement capacity across nine networks, a strategy that mirrors the institutional infrastructure buildout underway across the broader crypto payments sector. The next marker to watch is whether the pilot graduates to a permanent settlement product or continues scaling within its current framework.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial or investment advice. Cryptocurrency and digital asset markets carry significant risk. Always do your own research before making decisions.