Visa has set out a new approach to onchain credit, designed to let stablecoin-linked card programmes and fintechs borrow working capital by combining VisaNet settlement data with blockchain-based lending infrastructure.
Visa said in its release that onchain lending has become one of the fastest-growing segments of digital finance, citing more than $694 billion in stablecoin-denominated loans sent through onchain lending protocols since 2020 via its Onchain Analytics Dashboard. (The $694 billion figure is Visa’s own citation from the dashboard’s underlying data; the live dashboard shows interactive, time-filtered charts rather than a fixed headline stat)
Visa said most of that activity has stayed inside crypto markets, without meaningfully reaching the payments people use day to day.
One early example of the model, Visa said, is its work with Credit Coop, which provides working capital and settlement financing for stablecoin-linked card programmes. Smart contracts automate funding, collateral management and repayment; with a programme’s authorisation, Credit Coop combines Visa’s settlement data with onchain transaction records to assess how the programme is performing. Visa’s own separate account of the model says this lets facilities be sized against Visa’s settlement records directly, rather than a borrower’s own reporting.
Visa said the model has financed more than $2.5 billion in cumulative settlement volume since 2023 with zero defaults across participating facilities, processing more than 3,000 borrow events and 9,000 repayment events onchain. Those figures are the companies’ own disclosures and haven’t been independently audited.
Rain and Karta illustrate the scale, according to Visa’s own account of the model, as of 19 August 2026. Rain, a Visa principal member that powers stablecoin-linked card programmes worldwide, has run on the infrastructure since August 2023: $2 billion financed, zero defaults, more than 2,000 borrow events and 7,000 repayments.
Karta, a premium travel card for global travellers issued under Rain’s own BIN, is far smaller and newer: 34 borrow events, 95 repayments. It used the facility to fund its launch before raising a $140 million round in June 2026: a $15 million Series A led by Galaxy Ventures plus a $125 million institutional credit facility.
The announcement sits inside Visa’s wider stablecoin push, which also includes its recently launched Visa Stablecoin Platform, currently rolling out with limited availability. More than 160 stablecoin-linked card programmes now run on Visa’s network, with payment volume on those programmes growing nearly 200% year over year. Visa’s own stablecoin settlement volume has passed a $20 billion annualised run rate, more than 15 times higher than a year earlier.
“Stablecoins are not only changing how money moves, they’re creating opportunities to rethink the financial infrastructure that supports payments,” said Rubail Birwadker, Visa’s global head of growth products and partnerships. “We’re seeing how trusted payment data and onchain technologies can work together to unlock new forms of liquidity, helping businesses access capital in ways that are more transparent, programmable and aligned to the speed of modern commerce.”
Chris Walker, founder and chief executive of Credit Coop, said the underlying problem was one lenders had struggled to solve: “Payment companies have always had good collateral in their settlement receivables, but no way to show lenders how it performs in real time. By combining Visa settlement data with onchain infrastructure, we can evaluate live performance, enforce repayment from the settlement flow and extend capital onchain from participating lenders as a program grows.”
Artem Ponomarev, founder and chief executive of XPlace, a self-directed digital wealth platform, offered his reaction to the announcement as a customer of Credit Coop’s facility, not as a party to it.
He said XPlace uses it to finance its own card settlement rather than relying on pre-funded float, and that volume through the facility has grown roughly tenfold since July, to $4.7 million, figures supplied via his own PR contact and not independently verified.
“The less visible problem for any card programme is working capital,” Ponomarev said. “Using payment data to lend against money a programme is already owed closes that gap. It means financing capacity can be tied to how the business actually performs rather than how much cash it can park in advance.”
Credit Coop’s $2.5 billion in financing is a fraction of the $694 billion onchain lending market Visa cites, and its zero-default record, dating to 2023, hasn’t yet been tested through a stressed credit cycle.
