Birwadker said the offering amounts to a reloadable card that, from the perspective of the merchant, is no different than any other Visa card, allowing them to be paid right away in their local currency. He added that many people in Latin America are already holding stablecoins as a hedge against volatility, and that Visa’s service will result in them becoming more widely used in day-to-day commerce.
“If you can figure out how to tie stablecoin spend with Visa’s off-ramp, that unlocks the case use,” said Birwadker.
The new offering—which is also being rolled out in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Chile—stands out because it is being developed around non-volatile stablecoins, and for its open-ended design around Bridge’s technology.
For Visa, tapping Bridge as a partner means it can offer the new stablecoin payment service to a wide variety of third parties that can build their own apps for consumers and merchants. The companies said they expect early efforts to feature the stablecoin USDC, which is backed by Circle and Coinbase, but that they expect to accommodate other stablecoins too, as well as a variety of blockchains.
Abrams said this will prove especially appealing to firms in countries that lack complex fintech infrastructure, and will allow them to build their own version of brands like Chime or Cash App.
“Before this, in order to launch a card program, you’d need a local financial stack in every country,” said Abrams, citing the need for an aspiring financial app to find a bank partner, a card issuer, and a settlement network.
Abrams added that Bridge will be announcing major bank partners for the new Visa offering at Stripe’s Sessions event next week.
The companies expect the offerings to go live to consumers and merchants in the six Latin American countries in the next few weeks.
