Visa’s WeFi pilot enables self-managed stablecoins to fund everyday card payments across Europe, Asia and Latin America.
summary
- Visa is teaming up with native DeFi platform WeFi to pilot stablecoin-based payments and “on-chain banking” services across select markets in Europe, Asia and Latin America.
- The collaboration aims to make self-managed stablecoin balances spendable anywhere Visa is accepted, with WeFi acting as a coordination layer between DeFi and regulated payment rails.
- The pilots build on Visa’s broader stablecoin program, which already manages a $7 billion annual settlement run rate across nine blockchains, including Ethereum, Solana, Avalanche and Stellar.
Visa and WeFi have launched a collaboration to explore stablecoin-based on-chain banking and payment use cases in select markets, expanding the card network’s stablecoin program beyond back-end settlement into consumer-facing financial services. In a joint announcement posted on Chainwire and subsequent coverage, Visa said the initiative would focus on “how on-chain value interacts with familiar payment experiences within the existing regulatory framework,” using WeFi infrastructure to connect decentralized assets to Visa’s global acceptance network.
Visa is turning stablecoin pipelines into consumer banking infrastructure
WeFi describes its platform as an “orchestration layer” between decentralized finance and regulated payments infrastructure, designed to support use cases such as cross-border spending, on-chain store of value, and everyday card payments funded with stablecoins rather than bank deposits. Unlike many Encryption card Models that rely on full custody balances held on the exchange WeFi says its “de-banking” approach aims to allow users to hold assets in self-custody or hybrid settings while still accessing regulated payment paths.
According to Maxim Sakharov, co-founder and group CEO of WeFi, the goal is to meet the demand for money that “works seamlessly across borders, without unnecessary complexities,” using Visa’s capabilities as WeFi rolls out its banking services across key regions. A separate explanation notes that the rollout will continue region by region, starting with selected countries in Europe, Asia and Latin America, with expansion dependent on local regulatory approvals and issuance of partnerships. At launch, the collaboration will focus on regulated, fiat-backed stablecoins suitable for everyday payments, as well as additional currencies. Digital assets They are only considered after the initial stage.
For Visa’s part, the WeFi partnership is framed as an evolution of its existing stablecoin business. In an April update, Visa said it had added five new blockchains to its global stablecoin settlement pilot program, raising total support for nine chains and pushing the program’s stablecoin settlement volume to an annual run rate of $7 billion, up nearly 50% quarter-on-quarter. Previous pilot programs have allowed select issuers and acquirers to settle obligations with Visa directly in Circle’s USDC on networks like Solana, funding cross-border business payments with stablecoins rather than pre-positioning cash in foreign bank accounts.
And WeFi interconnection is pushing this logic to the front end: Visa and its DeFi-native partner are no longer just experimenting with how banks settle with each other, but with how users hold, spend, and transfer value on L2s and sidechains while card schemes handle user experience, compliance, and merchant relationships. If the model succeeds, the longer-term question shifts from whether banks will embrace stablecoins to how quickly card networks and fintech companies can re-implement core banking functions on-chain, leaving traditional banks fighting over KYC, licensing, and balance sheet roles in a world where the payments stack is increasingly owned by protocol-aware intermediaries rather than legacy cores.
