Visa Launches Stablecoin Platform to Enable Digital Currency Payments Across 200 Million Merchants

Visa launched its Visa Stablecoin Platform on July 16, 2026, allowing financial institutions to manage stablecoins like Open USD and USDC across its network of 200 million merchants. Concurrently, JCB partnered with Circle to explore USDC payments across 40 million merchants under Japan's updated regulatory framework. These moves intensify competition for Circle, which faces a USDC supply contraction to $73 billion amid the rise of the Open USD consortium.

Visa and JCB stablecoin platform launches

• ▪JCB Co., Ltd. and Circle Internet Group signed a memorandum of understanding on July 14, 2026, to explore integrating USDC payments across JCB's 40 million merchant locations.
• ▪Visa announced the Visa Stablecoin Platform on July 16, 2026, allowing financial institutions to store, issue, and move stablecoins within existing workflows.
• ▪The Visa Stablecoin Platform enables stablecoin balances to be spent across Visa's network of over 200 million merchants globally.

Technical mechanics of stablecoin platforms

• ▪The Visa Stablecoin Platform features a Wallet-as-a-Service offering, dual-control approval workflows, and connectivity for minting and burning Open USD.
• ▪Circle's Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol V2 uses a burn-and-mint mechanism to transfer USDC natively across blockchains in 8 to 20 seconds.

Japan stablecoin regulatory framework

• ▪A June 1, 2026, amendment to Japan's Payment Services Act established a compliance pathway for foreign trust-type stablecoins like USDC.
• ▪SBI VC Trade registered as Japan's first licensed Electronic Payment Instrument Service Provider in March 2025 to distribute USDC.

USDC supply contraction pressures

• ▪USDC's circulating supply contracted from approximately $81 billion at its March 2026 peak to around $73 billion in July 2026.
• ▪Mizuho analysts stated that Circle's July 10, 2026, OCC trust bank approval does not resolve fundamental issues like USDC supply contraction.

Open USD competitive threat

• ▪Jefferies analysts warned that rising competition from consortium-backed Open USD could pressure Circle's USDC growth and market share.
• ▪The Open Standard consortium, including Visa, Mastercard, Coinbase, Stripe, and BlackRock, launched the Open USD stablecoin on June 30, 2026.

Japan retail stablecoin adoption

• ▪Japanese payments company Netstars launched a merchant payment service supporting USDC, USDT, and JPYC across Solana and Polygon blockchains.
• ▪Japanese convenience store operator Lawson plans to test yen-denominated stablecoin payments using KDDI's JPYC stablecoin in Tokyo starting August 2026.

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