Visa Settles Bank Transactions in USDC on Solana | Lead Bank, Cross River Live

Visa is actively settling transactions in USDC on the Solana blockchain through two US banking partners, the company's head of crypto Cuy Sheffield confirmed this week. Lead Bank and Cross River Bank are processing settlements using Circle's dollar-backed stablecoin, marking one of the most concrete examples yet of traditional payment infrastructure running on a public blockchain at production scale.

The settlement capability was formally launched in December 2025, when Visa announced that US issuer and acquirer partners could for the first time settle VisaNet obligations using USDC rather than fiat currency alone. The company reported more than $3.5 billion in annualized stablecoin settlement volume globally at launch and described the US expansion as a “breakthrough for stablecoin integration.” Sheffield's confirmation this week signals the system has moved from announced capability to active daily use.

From Pilot to Production | VisaNet Obligations Now Payable in USDC

The distinction between pilot and production is significant. Visa has been experimenting with blockchain settlement since 2021, when the company ran an early USDC pilot on Ethereum. The December 2025 launch moved the capability into the core VisaNet settlement framework, meaning partners are not running a separate parallel system but integrating stablecoin settlement directly into the same infrastructure that handles trillions of dollars in annual fiat transactions.

Solana was selected as the blockchain layer over Ethereum for the live settlement operations, a choice that reflects the network's throughput and fee characteristics at scale. USDC, issued by Circle, is the stablecoin of record, maintaining a 1:1 peg to the US dollar and providing the price stability required for institutional settlement use cases where fiat-equivalent finality is non-negotiable.

$3.5 Billion Annualized | The Scale of Stablecoin Settlement

The $3.5 billion annualized figure reported at the December launch represents global stablecoin settlement volume across all of Visa's partner markets, not just the US. The US expansion through Lead Bank and Cross River Bank adds two regulated domestic banking institutions to that network, broadening the on-ramp for other US issuers and acquirers considering the same capability.

Cross River Bank has been one of the most active traditional banks in fintech infrastructure, serving as the banking backbone for a range of payments and lending platforms. Lead Bank occupies a similar niche. Their adoption of USDC settlement through Visa provides a credible institutional reference point at a moment when Congress is actively debating stablecoin legislation and the broader question of how dollar-backed digital assets fit into the regulated financial system.