Visa Chief Product Officer: How far are stablecoins from the next generation of payment infrastructure after the GENIUS Act?

Author: Jack Forestell

Organization & Compilation: Deep Tide TechFlow

Last week, the Senate passed the "Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act" (, referred to as the GENIUS Act. The passage of this act marks an important step for the United States in the regulation of stablecoins. At Visa, we support this and believe that stablecoin legislation could become a key moment in the history of the payments industry. However, I say "could" because there are still many challenges to overcome for the widespread adoption of stablecoins. The emergence of stablecoins brings hope for a new era of programmable digital currency, but there is still a long way to go before it truly matures.

Promoting the widespread adoption of new payment technologies is no easy task. It requires building trust between buyers and sellers, payers and payees on a global scale. This trust is not established overnight; it relies on a complex and tightly integrated set of capabilities, such as security, reliability, transaction assurance, fraud protection, dispute resolution, ease of use, and ongoing technological innovation.

In order for stablecoins to become the core infrastructure of the next generation of global digital payments, the following three key conditions must be met:

Layer One: Technical Foundation

A robust, scalable, flexible, and open technology architecture is needed to securely execute transactions at extremely high speeds and scales, ensuring zero errors, zero vulnerabilities, and zero security risks. In recent years, the rapid development of blockchain technology has provided feasible solutions for this demand.

Second Layer: Reserve Support

The core of stablecoins lies in the credibility of their value and stability. Stablecoins that are approved by regulatory agencies and backed by reserve assets provide a reliable answer to this issue.

Layer Three: Interface Layer

To make stablecoins truly a mainstream payment method, it is necessary to establish a universally applicable interface layer that attracts active user participation.

This layer needs to provide trust, rules, standards, security, and actual value for both parties in each transaction.

It needs to have sufficient scalability to cover billions of users worldwide.

At the same time, it also needs to provide users with a simple and convenient way to convert digital assets into their chosen fiat currency (that is, users can easily use the value obtained anywhere they need).

However, relying solely on the infrastructure of stablecoins cannot fully address this critical issue. Without a well-developed interface layer support, stablecoins will struggle to achieve the goal of becoming mainstream payment tools. They may play a role in certain specific scenarios, such as addressing small-scale payment issues, supporting closed systems, or serving as the behind-the-scenes infrastructure for wholesale capital flows and capital markets... but they are unlikely to achieve large-scale application in the mainstream payment sector.

Visa is working to address this issue. As a leader in the global payments industry, Visa has built one of the world's largest interface layers for security, security and trust. Over the years, we've invested billions of dollars to optimize this layer to accommodate different forms of payment and make it easy for all users to integrate into the Visa ecosystem. By integrating our infrastructure, services, and connectivity capabilities, we deliver a seamless, secure digital payment experience to billions of buyers and sellers around the world. This unique combination is known as the Visa as a Service stack )Visa as a Service stack(. Whether it's a small merchant or a large bank and enterprise, the Visa stack is their go-to choice when it comes time to expand their payment solutions. The same applies to partners in the cryptocurrency space. In recent years, we've partnered with leading crypto and stablecoin platforms to provide them with access to the Visa stack and help them hyperscale their payments. Since 2020, we have facilitated nearly $95 billion in crypto purchase transactions, and more than $25 billion in crypto spending, totaling more than $100 billion in fund flows.

Many people ask: "What problem does a stablecoin actually solve?" This is a very good question. For consumers and businesses around the world, they are already accustomed to using Visa's 4.8 billion physical cards and nearly 14 billion digital Visa Tokens, which they consider the most convenient and reliable way to make payments and receive funds. Visa's payment system offers an exceptional payment experience, and we continue to invest to make it the most advanced, secure, and convenient choice. Visa users do not have to worry about the following issues when making payments:

Will the merchant accept my payment?

Do I need a dedicated wallet?

Do I have the correct currency in my wallet? Am I on the right blockchain?

What is the Gas fee for this transaction?

Will my privacy be protected? Can someone see my transaction records and addresses without permission?

Can I earn points or rewards?

How to access my credit limit?

Who can I contact if I encounter a problem?

Is this transaction safe?

Through the Visa payment network, these issues are no longer barriers that trouble users, and this is precisely the core value we provide to users worldwide.

The vast majority of consumers and businesses still choose to use fiat currency for payments and enjoy the convenience brought by the Visa system. For payment solutions based on stablecoins, as long as they connect to the Visa payment network, they can provide users with the same experience.

So, what problems can stablecoins actually solve? In certain specific scenarios, especially in emerging markets, stablecoins have demonstrated significant potential, primarily reflected in the following aspects:

Users want to hold US dollars but lack convenient access channels.

Regions with significant fluctuations in local fiat currencies leading to economic instability

Some demands for cross-border capital flows, such as international remittances or inter-company payments (B2B payments)

These scenarios provide Visa with a new opportunity to expand its business, as they involve areas of capital flow that we have not yet fully covered. In these areas, we plan to leverage Visa's payment network advantages by collaborating with stablecoin platforms and partners, as well as global financial institutions, to offer innovative solutions.

However, in developed markets (such as the United States), it is less certain whether consumers and businesses will choose to use stablecoins for payments. This is because developed markets already have a wealth of payment options, such as making "digital dollar" payments directly through bank accounts, which are equally convenient and competitive.

The passage of the GENIUS Act provides a clear framework for the regulation of stablecoins, creating possibilities for their further promotion. Visa is currently actively positioning itself in multiple directions in the stablecoin field, including:

Deploy Visa authentication and Visa Token to connect the stablecoin payment platform and its users with fiat currency and the Visa global payment network;

Provide native settlement services that support stablecoins to make transactions more efficient;

Based on stablecoin technology, develop cross-border capital flow solutions to simplify international payment processes;

Provide customers with programmable currency solutions and explore more possibilities for payments;

In addition, there are many innovative features currently under development.

Of course, it will still take time to fully implement the use of stablecoins in the payment sector - and this is just a starting point.