Visa Enters the Stablecoin Infrastructure Race — And Brings Open USD Along For The Ride

On Thursday, Visa announced the launch of its stablecoin platform (VSP), a new payment ecosystem that will provide banks, fintech companies, and cryptocurrency firms with a centralized location to access, store, transfer, and manage stablecoins using Visa’s infrastructure. 

The platform launches with support for Open USD (OUSD), a new stablecoin introduced by Open Standard that has drawn backing from more than 140 companies across traditional finance, technology, and crypto.

Visa’s Answer To The Stablecoin Race

The platform’s initial feature set, according to Visa’s release, includes the ability to mint and burn Open USD, on-chain wallet infrastructure for institutional treasury and settlement use cases, and direct integration into Visa’s network tools and settlement systems. 

Security features include dual-control approval workflows — where one user initiates a transaction and a second must authorize it — along with comprehensive audit logging and transfer controls through allow lists.

Jack Forestell, Visa’s Chief Product and Strategy Officer, framed the launch around a practical gap rather than a technology announcement: 

Stablecoins are opening up a new layer of programmable money, but for most institutions the hard part isn’t the concept, it’s the operational reality. With the Visa Stablecoin Platform, we’re giving our clients a single place to mint, move, and manage stablecoin operations with the controls, security and network reach they already expect from Visa.

The platform is designed to work alongside Visa’s existing stablecoin products — stablecoin-linked cards, stablecoin settlement, and stablecoin money movement — rather than replace them. 

Together they form what Visa describes as a full stack for institutions looking to operate on-chain. The VSP is currently available for beta testing with select clients before broader rollout.

Open USD As The Biggest Threat To Circle’s USDC

Visa has been building toward this moment over the last few years. The company has moved billions of dollars in stablecoins across VisaNet, with an annualized run rate of $7 billion as of March 2026, and more than 160 stablecoin-linked card programs live or in development. 

Per the release, Thursday’s platform launch is the next step in that buildout — moving from pilots and card programs into full institutional infrastructure. But the launch further adds another dimension to the growing competition in the stablecoin sector. 

Asset manager CoinShares recently identified OUSD stablecoin as the most credible near-term threat to Circle (CRCL) and its stablecoin USDC, due to its broad institutional backing. 

Open USD is not live yet, but its model already matters.

In his latest research, Luke Nolan (@eazygambit), Senior Research Associate at CoinShares, looks at how @openstandard’s OUSD could challenge stablecoin economics by sharing reserve income with distribution partners.

As he… pic.twitter.com/QbFdrmBd9o

— CoinShares (@CoinSharesCo) July 15, 2026

As CryptoDepth reported in late June, the new stablecoin’s supporting coalition spans American Express, PayPal rival Affirm, payment processors Adyen and Fiserv, and Shopify, for the traditional finance side. 

In the crypto sector, Bybit, OKX, Solana (SOL), Crypto.com (CRO), Gemini (GEMI), Ripple, Coinbase (COIN), and Aave (AAVE) are among dozens of participating wallets, custodians, and blockchain infrastructure providers.

CoinShares noted, however, that Circle’s USDC established liquidity and deep integration across the crypto ecosystem would be difficult for any new entrant to replicate quickly.

Open USD is expected to formally debut in the second half of the year. It plans to distribute reserve income to participating businesses, which differentiates it from the current USDC model. 

Featured image generated with OpenArt.