Visa Positions Stablecoins as the New Back End of Global Commerce

Stablecoins are restructuring the underlying layers of global payments. During its annual payments forum, Visa announced plans to expand its stablecoin settlement pilots across various regions, blockchains, and currencies.

The company's strategy separates the user experience from the settlement process. While AI transforms the front end of commerce, stablecoins are reshaping the back end, according to Chief Product and Strategy Officer Jack Forestell. This distinction matters because it signals a move toward a dual-layer architecture: AI handles the interface and transaction initiation, while tokenized assets handle the movement of value.

Visa has already moved billions of dollars in stablecoins through VisaNet. The company stated that the annualized run rate reached $7 billion as of March 2026. To increase flexibility, Visa is working to extend seven-day settlement to include acquirers, building on the existing capability where issuing banks already settle seven days a week onchain.

The expansion includes two primary technical pillars:

1. Tokenized Deposits: Visa intends to build the technology layer for tokenized deposits. This allows banks to convert traditional deposits into programmable, always-on digital money while maintaining funds on their balance sheets.
2. Token Assurance: The company is enriching token data to provide details on transaction types and location. This includes a token assurance signal that evaluates use throughout a lifecycle to generate a trust score, helping issuers with authorization decisions and helping merchants reduce false declines.

These developments address a structural shift toward "agentic commerce." In this model, automated AI agents initiate transactions for consumers and enterprises. To support this, Visa introduced Agent Score, a tool for merchants to evaluate whether AI agents can complete tasks on their websites.

The implication for the broader financial system is a move toward a more programmable, automated settlement layer. As banks adopt tokenized deposits, the distinction between traditional ledger entries and blockchain-based assets will continue to blur.

Watch for how quickly acquirers adopt the seven-day settlement model, as this will determine the true velocity of this new back-end infrastructure.