Visa has added Monad, an Ethereum Virtual Machine-compatible Layer 1 blockchain, as a stablecoin settlement option for participating card issuers and acquirers, expanding the list of blockchains through which the payments network can move settlement funds. The addition lands ahead of Monad's planned institutional privacy system, which remains under development and is not yet operational. The Monad Foundation confirmed the addition, according to a November 10 report by The Block. For consumers, nothing changes at checkout: the option extends Visa's multichain settlement approach without altering how cardholders pay.

Monad Joins Visa's Expanding Settlement Network

Participating institutions can settle Visa obligations using supported stablecoins on eligible blockchains. In card processing, settlement is the step at which funds actually move between issuers, which cover cardholders' purchases, and acquirers, which collect them on merchants' behalf. Because settlement moves on-chain, transfers can take place on weekends and holidays, outside the conventional windows that govern traditional banking settlement.

Stablecoin settlement allows Visa and its financial institution partners to move value over blockchains rather than depending exclusively on traditional banking rails and their limited operating hours.

Visa has progressively broadened the program. In April, it added Arc, Base, Canton, Polygon and Tempo to its settlement pilot, building on existing options that already included Ethereum, Solana, Avalanche and Stellar.

The expansion follows accelerating activity across Visa's stablecoin services. On October 27, Visa CEO Ryan McInerney reported a $25 billion annualized stablecoin settlement run rate, describing the pace as ten times the level recorded a year earlier. That figure measures the annualized pace across Visa's program as a whole — it does not represent transactions processed on Monad. The available announcement provides no Monad-specific settlement total, and no bank has been named as a user of the new option. As the program widens, the concrete markers to follow are whether any institution is publicly named as settling Visa obligations on Monad and whether Monad-specific totals appear in future disclosures.

Private Settlement Remains a Design, Not a Product

Monad's inclusion precedes the launch of its proposed Private Settlement system. Category Labs introduced the design on October 6, according to the Monad Foundation.

The proposal would allow institutions to create encrypted execution environments while retaining access to the network's shared liquidity. Businesses could operate their own validators and determine which records auditors and regulators are permitted to inspect.

However, the foundation explicitly described Private Settlement as a published design rather than a live product, and its rollout timetable and production performance therefore remain unconfirmed. The distinction carries weight because institutional settlement can involve confidential balances, counterparties and treasury movements. Visa's network support for Monad does not establish that the privacy system is operational; the development to watch is whether that design graduates into a live system.

Visa Has Already Tested Confidential Settlement Elsewhere

The Monad integration is not Visa's first step toward confidential settlement. In June, the company announced a separate proof of concept with Brale on the Canton Network, aimed at testing privacy controls for stablecoin settlement involving institutional payment obligations.

Visa and Lloyds Banking Group later completed a seven-day live settlement pilot in September. Lloyds settled $750,000 using USDC, with funds reaching Visa within an hour, including on weekends. The pilot also tested interoperability between private and public blockchain environments.

Separately, Reap announced plans in October to support Monad-based stablecoin card programs. That initiative concerns card infrastructure and does not establish live Visa settlement volumes on Monad.