The recent passage of the Guiding and Establishing National Standards for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act by the U.S. Senate marks a significant milestone in regulatory clarity for digital currencies. Visa's Chief Strategy and Product Officer, Jack Forestell, articulated the company's perspective on the future of stablecoins, aligning with views expressed by Visa CEO Ryan McInerney in public interviews.
As a dominant force in traditional fiat value transfer systems, Visa's insights into the evolving payments landscape are particularly valuable. Their proactive stance indicates a deep understanding of the shifts underway and a strategic preparation for the integration of stablecoins into mainstream finance.
A "Potential" Pivotal Moment in Payments History
According to Jack Forestell, the GENIUS Act represents a "potential" pivotal moment in the history of payments. The term "potential" is key. While stablecoins represent the gateway to the next age of digital programmable money, achieving true scale requires substantial further development.
Visa CEO Ryan McInerney echoed this, noting that the immediate impact of the stablecoin bill is limited, but Visa has been preparing for this future for years. Adopting new payment technologies is complex. It requires building broad trust among buyers, sellers, payers, and recipients. This trust is built over time and is rooted in a complex set of intertwined functionalities: security, reliability, fraud protection, dispute resolution, ease of use, and continuous innovation.
For stablecoins to become a foundational part of the next generation of global digital payments, they must be operational across three critical layers:
The Technology Layer
A robust, scalable, flexible, and open technical backbone is essential. It must execute transactions securely and reliably at massive scale and high speed, with zero tolerance for failures, leaks, or breaches. Advancements in blockchain technology offer promising solutions here.
The Reserve Layer
Trust in the value and stability of the medium of exchange is paramount. Regulated, reserve-backed stablecoins provide a viable solution to this requirement.
The Interface Layer
A ubiquitous interface layer is needed where participants are actively eager to engage. This layer must provide trust, rules, standards, security, and value for every transaction. It must scale to cover billions of end-users. Crucially, it must offer a simple mechanism for users to convert value tokens into their chosen fiat currency, enabling them to spend digital assets wherever they choose.
The stablecoin infrastructure itself cannot solve this final layer. Without a solution here, stablecoins will fail to achieve mass adoption and their vision of becoming a mainstream medium of exchange. They may still serve narrow payment problems, provide closed-loop solutions, and act as back-end infrastructure for wholesale markets, but will not scale for mainstream retail use.
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Industry strategies to bridge this "last mile" gap are already emerging. Companies are investing in and acquiring stablecoin infrastructure capabilities, building networks with financial institutions, and leveraging existing massive user bases to integrate stablecoin payments seamlessly into familiar applications.
Visa's Role in Scaling Stablecoin Solutions
Visa positions itself as a critical enabler for scaling stablecoin adoption. The company has built what it calls the "Visa as a Service" stack—one of the world's largest, most secure, and most trusted payment networks. This infrastructure, continually refined with billions of dollars of investment, is designed for compatibility with various underlying transaction mediums.
By integrating its infrastructure, services, and connectivity, Visa provides a seamless and secure digital payment experience at an unparalleled scale. From the smallest merchants to the largest banks, entities looking to scale payment solutions turn to Visa. Crypto-native partners are no exception. Visa has collaborated with leading cryptocurrency and stablecoin platforms for years, granting them access to its network to achieve hyper-scale expansion.
Since 2020, Visa has facilitated nearly $95 billion in cryptocurrency purchases and over $25 billion in crypto spending—totaling over $100 billion in volume. Billions of consumers and businesses globally trust Visa credentials and digital tokens as their preferred payment method. Visa's stack is designed to answer the complex questions users should not have to ask before paying, such as:
- Will the merchant accept my payment?
- Do I need a special wallet?
- Do I have the right currency on the right blockchain?
- What are the transaction (gas) fees?
- Is my privacy protected?
- Can I get rewards or use my credit?
- Who do I talk to if there is a problem?
- Is it safe?
The vast majority of consumers and businesses will continue to use fiat currency through familiar Visa credentials. For stablecoin-driven solutions connected to the Visa stack, the experience will be equally seamless.
However, a significant challenge looms. Large enterprises with massive transaction volumes, like Walmart or Amazon, may see immense value in issuing their own stablecoins to bypass traditional card networks and their associated fees. This could drastically improve their profitability, posing a fundamental question to the existing payments landscape.
What Problems Do Stablecoins Actually Solve?
A common question posed to Visa's leadership is: what problem do stablecoins actually solve? Forestell acknowledges that stablecoins have already found a strong product-market fit within the cryptocurrency trading ecosystem. Beyond that, they represent a significant opportunity in specific use cases and emerging markets.
Key use cases include:
- Users in countries with high inflation, capital controls, or volatile local currencies who seek dollar exposure but lack easy access to the traditional banking system.
- Certain cross-border payment flows, including peer-to-peer (C2C) remittances and business-to-business (B2B) payments.
Data suggests that a significant portion of the largest stablecoin's growth comes not from crypto trading but from grassroots usage in these emerging markets. Visa sees these as under-served flows and avenues for its own growth, planning to work with stablecoin partners and financial institutions to leverage its network.
In developed markets like the U.S., the consumer appetite for using stablecoins for daily payments is less clear, given the abundance of efficient existing digital dollar payment options directly from bank accounts. The GENIUS Act provides regulatory clarity that opens a potential path for further application development.
Visa is already active in developing several stablecoin solutions, including:
- Connecting stablecoin platforms to fiat currencies and its global network via Visa credentials and digital tokens.
- Enabling native stablecoin settlement.
- Powering cross-border fund movement solutions via stablecoin infrastructure.
- Providing programmable money solutions for clients.
The journey towards mainstream stablecoin adoption is just beginning.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the GENIUS Act?
The GENIUS Act is U.S. legislation that establishes a federal regulatory framework for stablecoins. It aims to provide clarity on issuance, reserves, and oversight, which is seen as a critical step towards legitimizing and scaling stablecoin use in the United States and potentially influencing global standards.
Why does Visa consider the stablecoin bill a "potential" pivotal moment?
Visa recognizes the transformative potential of stablecoins but emphasizes that regulatory clarity alone is not enough. For stablecoins to become mainstream, significant work is required to build trust, develop scalable technology, and create user-friendly interfaces that integrate seamlessly with the existing financial ecosystem.
How do stablecoins benefit users in emerging markets?
Stablecoins offer a reliable store of value and medium of exchange in regions plagued by hyperinflation or weak local currencies. They provide easier access to dollar-denominated assets and can facilitate cheaper and faster cross-border remittances compared to traditional money transfer services, significantly enhancing financial efficiency.
Can large companies like Amazon bypass Visa with their own stablecoins?
In theory, yes. Large enterprises with substantial payment volumes could issue their own stablecoins to create closed-loop payment systems, bypassing intermediary networks and saving on transaction fees. This represents a potential long-term disruptive threat to traditional card networks by disintermediating them from the payment flow.
What are the three layers required for stablecoin success?
The three foundational layers are the Technology Layer (secure, scalable blockchain infrastructure), the Reserve Layer (transparent and fully-backed assets ensuring stability), and the Interface Layer (user-friendly applications that make spending stablecoins as easy as using traditional digital money).
Is the primary market for stablecoins in the United States?
No. While the U.S. is a major hub for innovation and regulation, the strongest product-market fit for stablecoins today is outside the U.S., particularly in emerging markets (the "Global South") where traditional financial infrastructure is less efficient or accessible. Stablecoins can improve financial efficiency far more dramatically in these regions.