Visa says a stablecoin-denominated revolving credit facility built by Credit Coop is now financing the daily settlement obligations of stablecoin-linked card issuers, marking one of the clearest examples yet of onchain credit plugging directly into card-network settlement rails.

In its thought-leadership account, Visa describes how Credit Coop built a financing layer for stablecoin-linked card issuers: a stablecoin-denominated revolving facility secured only by settlement receivables and verified against daily Visa settlement data. Credit Coop's Spigot smart contract routes incoming receivables toward interest and principal before any funds reach the borrower. What is still uncertain: the performance figures are Visa-reported rather than independently audited, the just-in-time funding phase has no separate launch date, and neither a stablecoin ticker nor a blockchain network has been disclosed.

Visa's Role: Settlement Network, Not Borrower

Visa is the settlement network in this arrangement, not the borrower. The credit relationship runs between Credit Coop as lender and the card programs as borrowers, while Visa supplies the settlement data that underwrites and verifies the facility. With each participating program's authorization, Credit Coop receives daily settlement files through a secure pipeline established with Visa, which describes Credit Coop as a registered Third Party.

That data-authorization boundary is what distinguishes the arrangement from a generic DeFi credit line, and it illustrates how VisaNet settlement data can power onchain working capital for card issuers rather than consumer-facing borrowing. Where most onchain lending is collateralized by crypto assets posted by the borrower, the collateral here is a stream of real-world payment receivables.

How Onchain Credit Fits Into Card Settlement

The facility funds a specific obligation: the net debit a card program owes to its Visa settlement address each day. This is settlement funding for issuers, distinct from consumer card borrowing or checkout payments, covering the working-capital gap between authorizing card spend and actually settling it.

Funding and Repayment Mechanics

Repayment is enforced onchain. Credit Coop's Spigot smart contract routes incoming settlement receivables to interest and principal repayment before any funds reach the borrower's operating account, giving the lender first claim on the receivable stream.

The specific stablecoin ticker, blockchain network and contract addresses are not disclosed in Visa's account, so the deployment chain remains unverified. As a reference stablecoin peg only, USDC traded at $0.9999 at press time according to CoinGecko; nothing in the announcement establishes that this facility uses USDC or any named asset.

Visa reports platform-wide cumulative financed volume of more than $2.5 billion for Credit Coop since 2023, alongside more than 3,000 borrow events, more than 9,000 repayment events and zero defaults — figures it presents as company-reported and not independently audited.

Rain, which Visa identifies as a Visa Principal Member, has used a Credit Coop revolving facility to fund daily Visa settlement obligations since August 2023. As of August 19, 2026, Rain's activity stood at more than 2,000 borrows and more than 7,000 repayments, with cumulative financed settlement volume reported at roughly $2 billion.

The same Spigot infrastructure supported Karta across 34 borrows and 95 onchain repayments before the company announced a $140 million raise in June 2026, comprising a $15 million Series A and a $125 million institutional credit facility.

Scale Context at the Network Level

The scale context sits at the network level. Visa reports more than 160 stablecoin-linked card programs globally in Q2 FY2026, with payment volume up nearly 200% year over year — a payment-volume measure distinct from settlement volume. Separately, Visa says its stablecoin settlement volume recently surpassed a $20 billion annualized run rate, up more than 15x over year. That run rate is an annualized pace, not a realized full-year total, and it is not the same measure as Credit Coop's cumulative financed volume.

Potential Benefits and Open Questions

Visa says increased lender participation reduced borrowing costs for participating programs by as much as 30%, though it discloses neither baseline interest rates nor a program-wide average reduction. The implication for issuers is cheaper settlement working capital, but the figure is a ceiling rather than a demonstrated average.

The collateral boundary is the key risk framing: because the facility is secured only by settlement receivables and repaid through Spigot before funds hit operating accounts, credit exposure tracks the receivable stream rather than broader balance-sheet assets. Visa reports zero defaults to date, but that is a company-reported claim without an independent audit or linked onchain dataset.

Visa labels just-in-time funding the next phase, in which the daily settlement file would trigger a disbursement matching that day's net debit to the Visa settlement address. No separate launch date has been given, and Rain's existing financing since 2023 does not establish that this phase is live across programs.

The model fits a broader pattern of stablecoin settlement rails reshaping payment plumbing and follows Visa's earlier moves to build out stablecoin infrastructure, which reach back to 2021, when the network settled its first card obligation in USDC with Crypto.com. Independent reporting from Bankless on September 8, 2026 confirmed the announcement, though its performance figures likewise derive from Visa rather than an independent audit.

Source: DefiLiban