Visa extends its on-chain ambitions

• Key insights: Visa has expanded its ties to blockchains, partnering with OwlTing and Tempo. 
• What's at stake: Visa is extending its ability to offer digital asset support as part of the card brand's value-added service strategy. 
• Expert quote: "While fears around stablecoin disruption continue to make waves, both networks continue to emphasize the importance of their infrastructure role, anchored by trusted networks, broad acceptance, and the ability to invest for the future." —TD Cowen analysts. 

As financial institutions rush to embrace blockchains, Visa has made a pair of moves that expands its ability to offer the technology as part of its value-added service strategy. 

The card network this week expanded an existing collaboration with Taiwan-based blockchain company OwlTing Group to include the Visa Direct transfer app. Visa also assumed a role in supporting Tempo, an emerging blockchain designed for agentic commerce. With the partnerships, Visa is betting on the appeal of digital assets and new forms of artificial intelligence among its issuers. While blockchain is the technology that underpins cryptocurrency, banks are finding it useful for a number of other purposes. Sixty two percent of banks report their clients are demanding digital assets to support loyalty or rewards for consumers, 61% note demand for blockchain-powered custodial services for business clients, 54% exchange services for consumers and 48% exchange services for business clients, according to research from American Banker. 

As part of its collaboration with OwlTing, Visa's real-time Visa Direct app will integrate with OwlPay, which offers an on/off-ramp service for stablecoins and a digital wallet. OwlPay will also add Visa Direct for remittances in a future deployment. Visa and OwlTing are pursuing merchants and consumers in Asia, the U.S. and other markets. The integration will enable users to spend USDC at U.S. retailers through gift cards, transfer assets or transfer funds globally to eligible Visa debit cards, linked bank accounts on the Circle Payments Network and MoneyGram agents. 

"Stablecoins have reached the point where the infrastructure is ready, but the on-ramp is still broken for most people," said Darren Wang, OwlTing's founder and CEO, in a release. "By integrating Visa Direct into OwlPay, we are connecting the debit cards that most Americans already use to a digital dollar infrastructure. The result is a meaningful reduction in the friction that has kept stablecoins out of everyday financial life, utilizing the security and global reach of the Visa network."

In another deal, Visa has taken a more active role in shaping the way blockchain infrastructure works with stablecoin payments with the launch of its validator node on the Tempo blockchain. Tempo is designed for agentic commerce and machine-to-machine payments. 

Validator nodes are the individual participants in a blockchain network that confirm and record transactions onto a shared digital ledger. 

Visa has been active in rolling out new stablecoin use cases and developing its own agentic commerce framework as it looks to insulate its business from new, competing payment technologies. It also is one of 40 "super validators" on the Canton Network's blockchain. 

Participating as a validator on blockchain networks allows the payments giant to directly participate – and shape – the way payments operate on emerging infrastructure. 

"We've spent years building our expertise in blockchain, and now we're expanding that work by running critical blockchain infrastructure ourselves," said Cuy Sheffield, Visa's head of crypto, in a statement. "By operating a validator on Tempo, we're extending Visa's commitment to reliability, security, and trust into blockchain networks." 

Visa rival Mastercard is also expanding its digital asset strategy. 

In March, Mastercard agreed to acquire BVNK for as much as $1.8 billion, including $300 million in contingent payments. The deal is expected to close before the end of the year, and is subject to regulatory approval. 

While stablecoins are still a very small part of the overall payments market, they've become big business for payment companies as banks and merchants figure out how to tap the emerging digital asset. Fifty-four percent of national banks and 47% of all banks expect to issue a publicly available stablecoin in the next 10 years, according to research from American Banker.

Visa and Mastercard made their most recent investments in digital assets ahead of their earnings reports. Visa has not announced a date for its next earnings report, which is expected in early May; while Mastercard is scheduled to report earnings on April 30.

In a research note, analysts at TD Cowen said Visa and Mastercard "continue to pair durable core payments growth with meaningful [services], with each delivering more than 20% year-over-year value-added services growth, reinforcing the expanding role of services within each company's growth algorithm."

TD Cowen also said investments in agentic commerce and stablecoin-enabled products position Visa and Mastercard as complementary infrastructure layers that can expand the long‑term addressable market for agentic commerce and stablecoins. 

"While fears around stablecoin disruption continue to make waves, both Visa and Mastercard continue to emphasize the importance of their infrastructure role, anchored by trusted networks, broad acceptance, and the ability to invest for the future," TD Cowen said.