Visa Adds Monad to Stablecoin Settlement Options as Institutions Seek More Rails

Visa’s growing list of blockchain settlement options reportedly has a new entrant: Monad. According to a November 10 report citing the Monad Foundation, participating Visa issuers and acquirers can now use the network for stablecoin settlement. That is a back-office financial infrastructure development, rather than a new consumer-facing Visa card that automatically makes every merchant accept cryptocurrency. TL;DR: Monad has been added to Visa’s stablecoin settlement options for participating institutional clients, according to a statement from the Monad Foundation reported on November 10. A privacy capability is planned, not yet delivered. The important test will be actual institutional usage and the operational conditions attached to settlement. What is changing for banks and payment providers? When a cardholder pays at a shop, the retail transaction and the subsequent movement of funds between financial institutions are separate processes. A settlement service can use digital dollars on a blockchain to transfer value between participating institutions without requiring consumers to interact with a crypto wallet. That is the layer Visa has been expanding. Visa’s October 15 update...