Visa and Mastercard aren’t embracing the stablecoin hype for everyday payments, despite crypto’s promise of faster, cheaper transactions. They say there is little current product-market fit for stablecoins in digitally developed markets. Both networks are experimenting with blockchain and stablecoin settlement but view most crypto activity today as trading and speculation rather than a near-term threat or opportunity to their core businesses.
In earnings calls this week, both Visa and Mastercard executives offered cautious assessments of digital assets, especially stablecoins, signaling that consumer demand hasn’t materialized in meaningful ways. Mastercard struck a more open tone than Visa, with CEO Michael Miebach saying the company is leaning in to emerging technologies like stablecoins and AI-powered agents, while framing its role as enabling infrastructure rather than leading transformation. For us, stablecoins are another currency we can support within our network, Miebach said, and he cited work with MetaMask, Ripple and Gemini. He emphasized that the current dominant use case remains trading, not payments.
We’ve made good traction enabling the purchase of these assets, facilitating transactions, and supporting stablecoins for settlement over our network, he said. Both companies have dabbled in blockchain infrastructure—Mastercard with pilots for on-chain identity and settlement tools, and Visa with experiments in stablecoin settlement using USDC. But despite these efforts, neither is treating crypto as a near-term threat or opportunity for their core businesses. That stance contrasts with the scale of on-chain activity. According to data from Glassnode, bitcoin alone settled over $25 trillion worth of transactions in 2025, more than Visa and Mastercard combined.
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