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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.<\/p>\n
That shift was evident in this week\u2019s results from Visa<\/a> and Mastercard<\/a>, where management teams paired financial performance with disclosures on stablecoin settlement and emerging use cases.<\/p>\n 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<\/a>, Visa\u2019s CEO, framed the effort as part of a broader push to connect digital assets to everyday payments.<\/p>\n \u201cStablecoins have tremendous growth and disruption potential but are still in the very early stages of adoption for payments use cases,\u201d McInerney said during the conference call with analysts. \u201cVisa\u2019s goal remains clear: build the secure and seamless interoperable layer between stablecoins and traditional fiat payment at scale across the world.\u201d<\/p>\n Visa outlined several concrete steps taken during the quarter<\/a>. 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\u2019 and users\u2019 stablecoin wallets.<\/p>\n Visa management emphasized that these efforts are not substitutive to other parts of the business.<\/p>\n Advertisement: Scroll to Continue<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThe stablecoin opportunity remains additive to what Visa is doing today,\u201d McInerney said, pointing to on-ramps and off-ramps, settlement, money movement, consulting and value-added services as parallel growth paths.<\/p>\n Executives also noted they do not expect stablecoins to immediately reshape mature digital payment markets, saying demand today is strongest in regions with constrained access to U.S. dollars and in cross-border scenarios where settlement speed matters most.<\/p>\n Mastercard struck a similar tone on its earnings call<\/a>, describing stablecoins less as a disruptive replacement and more as another form of currency that benefits from being routed through a trusted global network.<\/p>\nStablecoins Move From Concept to Network Infrastructure<\/strong><\/h2>\n