Visa outlines stablecoin strategy with OpenUSD after $11.6B Q3

Visa reported $11.6 billion in fiscal third-quarter revenue, up 14% from a year earlier, as the payments giant outlined plans to issue stablecoins and integrate tokenized deposits through a new platform.

"Visa is active in investing in each layer of the stablecoin stack, from blockchain to issuance, wallets, infrastructure and orchestration, and applications," the company said during its July 28 earnings call. "This quarter, we've made progress in both the issuance and application layers."

The company beat consensus estimates of $11.40 billion in revenue and $3.23 in adjusted EPS, reporting $3.32 per share. Payments volume grew 10%, cross-border volume increased 13% year over year (12% excluding intra-Europe), and processed transactions rose 10%, according to the earnings release. Visa also executed $6.2 billion in shareholder returns during the quarter.

Visa's move into stablecoins represents one of the largest institutional endorsements of the technology by a traditional payments network. The company joined the OpenStandard consortium, which plans to issue the OpenUSD stablecoin for global money movement. The Visa stablecoin platform will enable partners to settle with Visa in stablecoins, provide onchain wallet-as-a-service infrastructure, and facilitate transfers between fiat currencies and stablecoins, beginning with OpenUSD. The platform will also integrate with Pismo to support tokenized deposits for financial institutions, with plans to add third-party tokenized deposit infrastructure providers.

The company described stablecoins and artificial intelligence as complementary technologies reshaping commerce. "If stablecoins are reshaping the backend of commerce, we see AI is transforming the frontend," Visa said. "We believe agentic commerce will expand our addressable market and drive future growth for Visa."

Visa shares slipped 1.6% in after-hours trading following the report, as the company moderated its full-year growth guidance to the low end of low-teens for EPS and net revenue. The stock closed the regular session at $366.59, up 1.1% on the day.

The stablecoin platform positions Visa to compete with blockchain-based payment networks and fintech rivals including PayPal and Block, which have already integrated crypto payments. Mastercard has also explored stablecoin settlement, though Visa's OpenStandard membership gives it a direct role in shaping the emerging OpenUSD ecosystem.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.