Visa Seeks New Stablecoin Settlement Partner
In a private proposal for partnership, Visa’s description of work documents reveals that the race to infrastructure supremacy among major payments players is heating up. Visa is reportedly looking for a technology partner that can offer liquidity across at least four jurisdictions for fiat-backed stablecoins, as the company looks to hedge its bets against Mastercard which recently acquired Visa’s top settlement partner, BVNK. According to disclosures, Visa expects the selected provider to offer 24/7 liquidity for the programmable conversion of multiple settlement tokens, including its newly announced Open USD, suggesting that Visa is looking for front-to-back bank-settlement rails that aren’t dependent on traditional wire networks.
Visa’s Stablecoin Strategy Evolves After Mastercard’s $1.8B BVNK Deal
Visa has launched a new infrastructure this July designed to onboard stablecoins directly into its payments plumbing worldwide.
The partner should have US, Canadian, UK and Singapore cryptocurrency exchange money transmission licenses, where applicable.
Licenses should allow for more than just forwarding of tokens. Participants will need multi-coin liquidity, token-to-token exchange, OTC trading capabilities and native settlement, among other criteria.
The request for proposal comes two weeks after Mastercard bought stablecoin technology startup BVNK for $1.8 billion on August 3. Mastercard’s move into stablecoins swallowed up Visa’s old stablecoin settlement partner.
Via the partnership, Visa wants a future partner to integrate with the Open USD initiative and provide liquidity for more than one stablecoin.
Mastercard’s $1.8B BNKV Acquisition Played a Key Role
Visa’s recruitment process can be traced back to industry-wide consolidations. August 3 saw Mastercard close on their $1.8 billion purchase of London-based stablecoin infrastructure firm BNKV. The firm processed over $30 billion in volume per year.
| Parameter | Mastercard | Visa |
|---|---|---|
| Infrastructure Strategy | Vertical Integration | Open Consortium/RFP |
| Primary Acquisition/RFP | Acquired BVNK ($1.8B) | Searching for Partner |
| Key Licensing Target | Proprietary Stack | US, UK, CA, SG |
| Asset Support | Multi-Asset Treasury | Open USD + Multi-Coin |
Mastercard’s acquisition of BVNK was notable because BVNK had been one of Visa’s principal settlement partners for stablecoin programs. BVNK is now owned by Visa’s direct competitor, so essentially Visa cut its access to those important rails. Visa announced a partnership with ZeroHash on August 5 that allows for payouts to stablecoins through Visa Direct. However, ZeroHash does not have a presence in all four major markets that Visa is seeking so their search continues.
Four-Market Regulatory Coverage Mandate
Visa is going after regulated compliance rather than quick piecemeal integrations by insisting on a partner holding licenses in the US, Canada, UK and Singapore. Most crypto infrastructure providers and OTC desks don’t hold licenses in all four of those markets at once, let alone regulators approval in each.
Whoever is chosen will be responsible for exchanges between various fiat currencies and stablecoins, as well as institutional liquidity needs. It will also have to back Visa’s recently launched stablecoin initiative Open USD (OUSD), a joint venture between Visa, Mastercard and Coinbase.
Despite backing Open USD, Visa continues to maintain a multi-token strategy, requiring its settlement partner to support existing high-volume assets such as USDT and USDC alongside emerging institutional tokens. Visa has not publicly commented on the RFP or disclosed a selection deadline.
