Visa has added Monad, a high-performance Layer 1 blockchain, as a new member of its stablecoin settlement network, enabling the blockchain's issuers and acquirers to settle Visa obligations in stablecoins on Monad. The integration brings the network into Visa's multi-chain settlement infrastructure and marks another step in Visa's ongoing effort to build out its infrastructure for money on the blockchain.

Monad announced the integration through its official account on X on November 10, 2026:

🌐 @Visa is expanding stablecoin settlement to Monad

Participating issuers and acquirers can now settle Visa obligations in stablecoins on the Monad blockchain

— Monad (@monad) November 10, 2026

X post: https://x.com/monad/status/2120162208974028949?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Back-End Settlement, Not Consumer Checkout

The integration does not touch the consumer checkout side of card payments; it operates entirely at the back end. Cards are issued to customers by issuers, while acquirers are responsible for processing payments on the merchant side. Once clearing has taken place — the step that establishes what each party owes — participating institutions can settle the amounts owed through Visa using stablecoins on Monad.

Stablecoins, digital tokens typically pegged to fiat currencies such as the US dollar, are increasingly used to move value across blockchain networks. The integration gives financial institutions an additional choice when settling Visa transactions that may fall outside traditional banking hours, such as weekends and holidays, offering settlement funds an alternative path. According to the Monad Foundation, the network is permissionless and has the speed and scalability needed for payment settlement. Visa has not named the issuers or acquirers that will use Monad first, nor has it disclosed which stablecoins will be supported.

Stablecoin Settlement Run Rate Passes $25 Billion

Visa, one of the world's largest card payment networks, has been steadily extending its settlement infrastructure onto blockchain rails. Its stablecoin business currently amounts to more than $25 billion annually, and settlement activity has risen quickly through 2026. In September, the company said its stablecoin settlement run rate had exceeded $20 billion per year. By late October, Visa CEO Ryan McInerney said the annualized tally had climbed above $25 billion, roughly 10 times the level recorded a year earlier.

That figure represents Visa's total stablecoin settlement volume across all of its settlement networks, not necessarily volume settled through Monad. Visa's stablecoin settlement work traces back to a 2021 pilot in Circle's USDC, with the capability later extended to additional chains such as Ethereum and Solana. In April, Visa rolled out its settlement testing initiative to nine blockchains and expanded the program to $7 billion per year.

Monad Builds Institutional Privacy Infrastructure

The Visa integration is part of Monad's broader push to build privacy-focused settlement infrastructure for financial institutions. The work addresses a practical consideration for banks and payment companies weighing settlement on public, permissionless blockchains: limiting how much of their financial activity is exposed on a public ledger. Under Monad's proposed Private Settlement design, organizations would be able to run execution environments with configurable validators and permissioned asset and access rules while remaining connected to the main network. Specific information, such as sensitive transaction details, balances, and contract state, may be unavailable to outside observers, while regulators or auditors would be able to access designated information as needed.

The privacy feature is not part of the existing Visa integration and is still being developed. According to the Monad Foundation, more privacy features are in the works for the near future.

With Monad's addition, Visa is continuing an approach that has accelerated over the past several weeks, in which stablecoins are increasingly treated as settlement utilities rather than simply crypto assets. The company is providing issuers and acquirers with additional ways to make use of blockchain technology, positioning Visa as the shared layer that ties those settlement channels together.

Source: Crypto Ninjas