Key Highlights

• Visa has joined the BLOOM initiative, spearheaded by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), to explore stablecoin-based payment settlement.
• The global payment network has selected cross-border payment platform Nium as its initial collaboration partner within the BLOOM program.
• Testing will focus on continuous settlement operations seven days a week, covering weekends and holidays, using regulated stablecoins pegged to the U.S. dollar and the euro.
• Visa currently operates stablecoin settlement infrastructure across nine blockchain platforms with approximately $7 billion in annualized transaction flow.
• Neither company has disclosed specific timelines for deployment or projected transaction volumes for the pilot program.

Visa (V) has announced its participation in Singapore's BLOOM program, an initiative orchestrated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), teaming up with cross-border payment platform Nium to trial stablecoin settlement mechanisms. The announcement follows the company's fiscal third-quarter results, which showed net revenue of $11.63 billion for the quarter ended in July, with payment volume and processed transactions each up 10% year over year.

The experimental program will evaluate whether regulated digital currencies backed by U.S. dollars and euros can support payment settlement operations continuously throughout the week, removing the constraints imposed by traditional banking schedules. Conventional settlement processes remain tied to business days, creating operational gaps when financial institutions cannot finalize critical components of transactions. For payment networks and their banking partners, that makes settlement infrastructure a practical focus: even when consumers and merchants see an instant card authorization, the movement of funds behind the scenes still depends on back-office rails that do not always run around the clock.

Within the BLOOM infrastructure, Visa has designated Nium as its inaugural partner for the initiative. The two organizations will investigate how stablecoin-based settlement can minimize processing delays and provide financial institutions with accelerated fund availability. The trial emphasizes the backend settlement infrastructure supporting payments rather than the consumer-facing transaction initiation process. According to Visa, stablecoins have the potential to introduce greater programmability into payment workflows and enable institutions to execute settlement operations beyond conventional banking hours.

A Growing Blockchain Settlement Network

The payment processing leader currently maintains stablecoin settlement capabilities across nine distinct blockchain platforms: Ethereum, Solana, Avalanche, Stellar, Base, Polygon, Canton, Arc and Tempo. In April, the company disclosed an annualized stablecoin settlement transaction rate approaching $7 billion, representing a 50% quarterly increase.

By June, Visa indicated that issuing banks participating in its blockchain-based programs had achieved the capability for continuous weekly settlement. The organization has simultaneously pursued efforts to extend this functionality to acquirers — the entities responsible for managing merchant funds following card transaction clearing.

During the company's July earnings presentation, CEO Ryan McInerney characterized Visa's stablecoin strategy as "multi-coin, multi-chain," emphasizing that the company has no intention of endorsing a singular stablecoin. The BLOOM testing program aligns with this diversified approach, as no specific token has been designated for the pilot yet.

Adeline Kim, Visa's group country manager for Regional Southeast Asia, emphasized the importance of interoperability in the evolution of payments. "The future of payments will be shaped by how different forms of money and payment networks work together for different use cases," Kim stated.

Nium's Integration and the BLOOM Ecosystem

The development builds upon Nium's April implementation of USDC disbursements through Coinbase, which introduced stablecoin-enabled international payments across its network spanning over 190 nations. This infrastructure enables enterprises to finance disbursements using USDC and complete settlements in either stablecoins or local currencies, eliminating the need to maintain prefunded accounts in multiple jurisdictions.

Amaresh Mohan, Nium's chief risk and compliance officer, explained that the BLOOM collaboration focuses on developing infrastructure that bridges conventional payment systems with stablecoin-based rails.

MAS launched the BLOOM framework in 2025, and its participants include Circle, DBS, OCBC, Partior, Stripe and UOB. The initiative expands upon Project Orchid, MAS's preceding exploration of programmable money concepts. Another BLOOM experiment, disclosed in March, featured Ripple and supply-chain financing company Unloq leveraging RLUSD on the XRP Ledger to evaluate a trade-finance settlement framework connected to shipment authentication.

Neither Visa nor Nium has provided information regarding a deployment timeline, anticipated transaction volumes, or additional financial institutions that may participate in the pilot beyond the two primary companies.

Source: Blockonomi