Visa's Stablecoin Strategy: Cards, Settlements, and the Future

Author: Payment 201

Based on Visa’s understanding, 70% to 90% of the transaction volume of credit cards and debit cards that are supported by stablecoins is currently running on their network, and this figure continues to grow.

David Rolf leads Visa Ventures— the investment arm of the world’s largest payments network—whose mission is to find the winning companies in areas that are strategically vital to Visa.

About two and a half years ago, stablecoins began to become one of the team’s key focus areas. At that time, the team stopped viewing crypto as a “card product” and started viewing stablecoins as a real solution that can solve real problems.

Since then, Visa has:

• Launched 7×24-hour stablecoin settlement

• Enabled preloading for cross-border funds movement using USDC (via Visa Direct)

• Partnered with companies like Rain and Western Union to provide stablecoin-supported cards to remittance recipients who have never been exposed to cryptocurrencies

David also broke down the key gaps that still exist today:

• Local currency liquidity

• B2B payments infrastructure

• On-chain programmability

And Visa Ventures is looking for more directions to develop among builders.

This content was recorded at A Very Stable Conference in old San Francisco in 2026.

Guest: David Rolf (Head of Visa Ventures)
Host: Drew Rogers

Host (Drew Rogers):
I think for a lot of us, it was probably about two and a half to three years ago when we suddenly “got it.” When we started seeing stablecoins—and realizing that they really were solving some problems—I think stablecoins have long surpassed the product-market fit stage.

Host (Narration):
David Rolf is the head of Visa Ventures, which is part of Visa. He explains how Visa funds the next wave of global financial infrastructure, and how the world’s largest payments network runs at the speed of software. As we understand it, roughly 70% to 90% of the transaction volume of stablecoin-supported credit cards and debit cards is completed on Visa’s network. Overall, people still need a better understanding: stablecoins aren’t for those crazy Degen DeFi players; they’re solving real problems. If I were a builder in this room, I would think: how do I interact with Visa? How can Visa use its network, scale, relationships, and billions of account credentials to help me build my business? To learn the full strategy, listen to Stable Dash.

Host:
This city by the Golden Gate Bridge. It really is a miraculous city.

Host (Drew Rogers):
David, thank you for taking the time to be with us at A Very Stable Conference in San Francisco. The energy here on site is very high. You just hosted a conversation on stage. Who did you interview?

David Rolf:
Of course. I just hosted a conversation, with Rain’s Farooq and Malcolm from Western Union. They announced a collaboration—essentially a partnership with Visa: through funds remitted by Western Union, recipients can receive those funds, and these funds can be disbursed not only in cash, but also directly onto a Visa card issued by Western Union and supported by stablecoins. So I think that’s going to make a big difference for a lot of people.

For those who previously could only collect cash, they can now actually keep the money within the digital economy system. If they want, they can also keep the funds in stablecoins. So yes, it was a really interesting conversation.

Host (Drew Rogers):
Yes, there’s a lot of strong energy here today, especially in this area. Visa’s offices are just a few blocks away from here—I probably shouldn’t have said that.

Visa has been involved in this space. We actually talked with Cuy before as well. We did a podcast episode then—Farooq from Rain, Cuy, and me. We talked together. It’s really cool to see Visa continuing to be part of this discussion—and not just seeing innovation on the product side, but also seeing your work on the venture capital side.

Maybe before we get started, you could introduce your role for us—your responsibilities—and how you see these builders and founders, especially the current state of the stablecoin space: the current startup environment, team situations, and potential gaps. But let’s start with your position within the organization first.

David Rolf:
Of course. I’ve been at Visa for more than 8 years. Over the past three and a half years, I’ve been leading the Venture team. We are not a traditional venture capital fund in the conventional sense. We certainly want very good financial returns, but that’s not our primary goal. We’re Visa employees, and we report to our Chief Product and Strategy Officer, Jack Forestell. So we’re highly aligned strategically.

Our mission is to truly find those future winning companies in areas that are extremely important to Visa. Some are current business partners, some aren’t yet, and increasingly, they’re companies that are active in areas that we believe are extremely important to Visa.

We only have one Ventures team that handles global investments. More than half of our portfolio is outside North America. Stablecoins are one of our priority focus areas because there’s very strong momentum in this space. A lot of founders are using this technology to solve real problems. For us, when we see a wave of technology actually solving real problems—that’s the phase we’re most interested in and most excited about.

I think stablecoins have long surpassed the product-market fit phase. But at the same time, people are still exploring what else they can do. So over the past two years, we’ve spent a lot of time understanding this space and talking with many people. We have indeed made some investments, but what we truly care about is: what can we learn? How do we help these companies? How do we connect them with other teams inside Visa? How do we introduce them to other venture capital investors that fit them? That’s really interesting.

Host (Drew Rogers):
On that point, I have a question. This moment for stablecoins—and the “real problem solving” capability you mentioned—is strategically important for Visa’s business. You also said you’ve been doing this for three years now. From your personal perspective, over these three years, how has your understanding of stablecoins changed? When did stablecoins start to become a true strategic priority? How do you see it now, and what’s changed compared to three years ago?

David Rolf:
From my personal perspective—also from Visa’s perspective—we actually had a crypto team pretty early on. We’ve also gone through a lot of waves of crypto cards, like credit cards and debit cards, and so on. So we were involved very early. But those weren’t really true investment opportunities.

The real “aha” moment happened about two and a half to three years ago, when we started seeing stablecoins and realizing they were solving real problems. In particular, some things—frankly—Visa itself is deeply involved in, like money movement. We understand money movement very well—the problem is: how do we accelerate the flow of funds?

So for me, it’s been a continuous learning process—continuous conversation with people, trying to understand this space. And at the same time, thinking: as Visa, where can we provide help? Where can we participate? What can we do?

If I look back at some of the product capabilities we later rolled out—like stablecoin settlement—that means 7×24-hour settlement. It means a transaction that might previously have settled on Friday at 8 p.m. can now settle on Friday at 9 p.m., instead of waiting until Monday. That’s actually accelerating funds movement, and that’s important to us, and important to our partners.

Stablecoin settlement is one aspect. We’re also using it. We’re not only partners and investors—we’re using it. For example, we accept USDC as settlement funds to preload for cross-border funds movement through the Visa Direct network.

Of course, there are also payments supported by stablecoins—like stablecoin-supported Visa cards, debit cards, and credit cards. Based on our understanding, roughly 70% to 90% of the transaction volume of stablecoin-supported credit cards and debit cards is on our network. So throughout this journey, it’s been continuous learning, continuous conversation—while also connecting all kinds of resources and teams.

Host (Drew Rogers):
With card companies like Rain, we really like learning about teams like that. Their partnership with Visa—combining stablecoin settlement with cards—has been really well done. For a lot of builders in the room who are working on infrastructure and assets, a combination like Visa and Rain can truly drive and accelerate transaction volume.

So taking a different angle, what gaps, issues, or pain points do you think still exist in the market today—or, more broadly, what opportunities are there? When you go back inside the team to think about strategy, are there any areas where you feel “this is where entrepreneurs should focus”? What does that feel like right now?

David Rolf:
I can answer this from a few angles.

First, I think we still need more awareness and education overall. Many people still think stablecoins are for those “crazy Degen DeFi players.” But in reality, they’re solving real problems. Just like the Rain and Western Union example we discussed earlier, these recipients are not crypto-native users at all. It’s just using a technology to solve a problem.

If I look at other issues that still exist, like on/off ramps—that is, local currency liquidity. If you consider something like a “stablecoin sandwich,” when you need to swap stablecoins into local currency, many countries actually don’t have sufficient native liquidity. So right now, many companies are trying to solve liquidity problems. That’s a key factor that will help adoption.

The underlying technology itself is quite strong. I think the problem is more on the adoption side.

There are also complexities—for example, you can send stablecoins across different blockchains. So how do you manage that? How do you ensure you’re sending money to the correct chain and the correct address? Those issues still exist today, even though people are working on them. But it’s still at the “infrastructure building” stage. For example, “fat finger errors” are problems that people want to have eliminated by the system.

Another thing I’d mention is: the ability to carry information along with payments. Stablecoin is a way to move funds, but fund movement usually comes with a lot of information. I think there’s a huge opportunity here in B2B payments. Stablecoins can play a role, but it needs a lot more maturity as well as a lot of things to be built—like connections to accounts payable (AP) and accounts receivable (AR) systems. All of that is in progress, but if you want a qualitative leap, these are key directions.

Host (Drew Rogers):
Some people describe Visa as an “information transmission network,” or a protocol that transmits state and information among different participants. What’s your take?

If you connect that with stablecoins, what information do you think is valuable? For example, information about the payer, geographic information, or anything else?

David Rolf:
I think that’s a great description. I agree with that perspective. Part of Visa’s work is indeed about transmitting information. Of course, we’re also transferring funds in practice, while transmitting funds-related information between partner banks.

I think during the flow of funds, there’s indeed a lot of information that can be attached.

But at the same time, stablecoins also have some things you “lose.” For example, someone might ask: will all payments in the future use this? Maybe, but just like cash and checks, they each have downsides. Once the money is sent out, it’s gone. Like a wire transfer.

I think stablecoins are a very good way to move funds. They may not always be the cheapest, but their advantage is the “software speed.”

And I also think there’s a very big opportunity in programmability. Because it’s on-chain—when you combine it with other systems, like triggering automatic settlement or automatically executing certain conditions, it becomes really interesting. I know a lot of people are already doing this.

But the emphasis I mentioned earlier is more in B2B contexts—carrying information along with payments—which needs to be developed and built.

Host (Drew Rogers):
So in B2B contexts, if you imagine an “ideal state,” what use cases have the most traction right now? Is it payout, funds management, or something else?

David Rolf:
I think it’s still a bit early, and it’s hard to draw conclusions.

Yes, there are some companies using stablecoins on the rails for payouts, especially those with widely distributed geographies.

I’ve also heard a very interesting saying: if you work at a globally distributed stablecoin company, but you’re not paid in stablecoins, that’s kind of strange. So I think that’s the state of early adopters.

But to truly become mainstream, it will require a lot of infrastructure building and a lot of compliance work.

Especially in cross-border scenarios, I think the most core use case is cross-border funds movement. But the key point is: when funds enter or leave the fiat currency ecosystem, that part is extremely important, and you must be regulated locally.

So overall, this is still in an early stage. But we’re excited about the use cases that people are trying and exploring. There are a lot of people inside Visa thinking about these issues every day, so we’re very happy to connect those resources.

Host (Drew Rogers):
This is a really interesting field. Final question.

If you were facing a room full of stablecoin builders—many of them are industry veterans, entrepreneurs, infrastructure builders, investors—what do you most want them to know? About Visa, or about Visa Ventures, what’s the one thing you most want them to understand?

David Rolf:
I’d say the energy here is really strong. I was just upstairs—those rooms are full, there are people outside too, and today the weather in San Francisco is great.

If it comes to Visa, I think the most important thing to understand is: we are “enablers.” We’re a network.

We look for ways to help companies succeed by leveraging the assets we’ve already built. That applies to big companies as well as startups.

Inside Visa, there are many different touchpoints. We have thousands of people who wake up every day thinking: how do we leverage the capabilities we’ve built to help partners succeed?

So if you’re a builder in this room, you should be thinking: how can Visa help you? Based on our network, our scale, our relationships, and the hundreds of millions of endpoints—billions of account credentials—what can we do for you?

I encourage everyone to think about that question, find the right people, and reach out proactively.

When I talk with many companies, I ask them: how do you want Visa to help you?

We have a lot of assets. We’re global. We want to partner with companies that we can help succeed.

Host (Drew Rogers):
That’s fantastic. I’m really glad you’re in this space, and thank you so much for your time. We’ll talk again next time.

David Rolf:
Thank you. I really enjoyed this conversation.

Host:
Have fun.

Host (Narration):
This is our exclusive conversation with David Rolf (Visa). This city by the Golden Gate Bridge. A city that’s truly full of miracles.