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Visa is a digital payments technology company that connects consumers, merchants, financial institutions, and governments worldwide through its high-speed, secure network (VisaNet) to process electronic payments using credit cards, debit cards, and prepaid cards. Visa does not issue cards directly; instead, it provides network infrastructure for banks to use, primarily for international interbank transfers, online payments, and contactless payments.
Securitize Appoints Former IMF Representative to Its Board
Odaily News Securitize announced the appointment of investor, Blackstone advisor, and former International Monetary Fund (IMF) board member Sunil Sabharwal to its board. Sunil Sabharwal served as the U.S. representative to the IMF, confirmed by the U.S. Senate, from 2016 to 2018, for which he received the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Distinguished Service Award. He currently serves on the boards of Thunes and TookiTaki, and previously served as Chairman of payment companies Earthport and Ogone, which were acquired by Visa and Ingenico, respectively. Since 2021, he has served as an advisor and operating partner for the Blackstone Growth Equity Fund.Securitize currently manages over $4 billion in on-chain assets, including the BlackRock BUIDL Fund and tokenized products from institutions such as Apollo, BNY, Hamilton Lane, KKR, and VanEck. The company reached an acquisition agreement with a Cantor Fitzgerald affiliate last October, valuing Securitize at $1 billion. The merged company is set to list on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol CEPT.
Tether Participates in $134 Million SDEV Funding Round to Accelerate Mainstream Adoption of Stablecoin Infrastructure
According to an official announcement by Tether, Tether Investments participated in a $134 million financing round for the publicly listed Stablecoin Development Corporation (NYSE American: SDEV), with other investors including R01 Fund LP and Framework Ventures—digital asset-focused investment firms. SDEV positions itself as an on-chain holding company dedicated to building infrastructure for stablecoin payments, transfers, and cross-platform fund flows, aiming to lower user adoption barriers. Globally, the circulating supply of stablecoins has surpassed $300 billion, while last year’s transaction volume reached $33 trillion—exceeding the combined total of Visa and Mastercard. Meanwhile, Tether’s USD₮ user base has grown to 570 million.
Visa, Stripe, and Zodia Custody Become Early Validators of the Tempo Payment Blockchain
According to The Block, Visa, Stripe, and Zodia Custody—a digital asset custody firm backed by Standard Chartered Bank—have become the first validators on the Tempo payment blockchain. Tempo is an Ethereum-compatible Layer 1 blockchain designed specifically for high-throughput payments and stablecoin settlement, primarily targeting large institutions. Validators are responsible for verifying, ordering, and finalizing on-chain transactions, and are typically mature organizations with global operational capabilities. Tempo was incubated by Stripe and Paradigm, launched its private testnet in September 2025, and closed a $500 million Series A funding round in October at a valuation of approximately $5 billion. Recently, Tempo introduced its “Agent Payments” protocol—executed by AI agents—and has attracted infrastructure integrations including RedStone.
Visa partners with WeFi, co-founded by former Tether CEO, to connect crypto assets via its payment network
Visa has partnered with WeFi, an on-chain banking company founded by former Tether CEO Reeve Collins, aiming to enable digital asset payments through WeFi's on-chain banking infrastructure. WeFi allows users to hold assets in self-custodial wallets and retain control of their private keys, while ensuring they can spend at any merchant that accepts Visa payments.The project will initially launch in select markets in Europe, Asia, and Latin America, with plans to expand to other regions pending regulatory approvals. WeFi CEO Maksym Sakharov stated that stablecoins will be directly embedded into the underlying infrastructure, with settlement processes handled in the background, eliminating the need for users to manually perform conversions.
Visa Partners with WeFi—Founded by Former Tether CEO—to Advance On-Chain Payments, Enabling Direct Stablecoin Spending on the Visa Network
According to The Block, Visa has partnered with WeFi—a “blockchain-based bank” founded by Reeve Collins, former CEO of Tether—to enable users to hold digital assets in self-custodial wallets and spend them directly across the global Visa acceptance network, without depositing assets into centralized exchanges. Maksym Sakharov, Co-Founder and CEO of WeFi, stated that stablecoins are natively embedded into the underlying infrastructure, with settlements processed automatically in the background, delivering a user experience indistinguishable from conventional payments. This partnership will initially launch in select markets across Europe, Asia, and Latin America, with further expansion contingent upon regulatory approvals.
Analysis: Stablecoins are still primarily used for crypto transactions; payment applications have yet to break through.
The Kansas City Federal Reserve’s latest analysis indicates that stablecoins currently serve primarily as tools for cryptocurrency trading and liquidity provision within the financial ecosystem, rather than as mainstream payment instruments. According to the report, approximately 49% of stablecoin supply supports trading liquidity on centralized exchanges, decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols, and broader crypto infrastructure; 29% is used for wallet-to-wallet transfers or internal fund operations; and 21% remains idle—with less than 1% actually deployed for real-world payments. The report notes that, as natively crypto-designed instruments, stablecoins face constraints in cross-chain interoperability and integration with traditional financial systems, hindering their large-scale adoption for payments. Although payment processors such as Mastercard and Visa announced support for related technologies in 2026, stablecoin-based payment use cases remain in their infancy. Future development hinges on resolving critical challenges including interoperability, regulatory compliance, and identity verification.
U.S. food delivery platform DoorDash is collaborating with Tempo to explore paying delivery personnel in stablecoins.
According to Fortune, Tempo—a blockchain project backed by Stripe and Paradigm—has launched “Stablecoin Advisory” services to support enterprises and financial institutions in adopting stablecoins, including identifying suitable use cases and deploying engineers to assist with stablecoin integration. The report states that DoorDash is collaborating with Tempo to explore paying delivery personnel in stablecoins; Stripe, Coastal Community Bank, and ARQ are also building stablecoin infrastructure on Tempo’s platform, while Visa, OnePay, Felix, Fifth Third Bank, and Howard Hughes Holdings are integrating their payment operations with Tempo.
Coinbase Incubated x402 Protocol Launches AI Agent App Store Agent.market
Odaily News The x402 protocol, incubated by Coinbase, has announced the launch of a unified platform called Agent.market, positioned as an "AI Agent App Store" for centrally showcasing and integrating various tools and services built on the protocol. According to the introduction, Agent.market already covers seven major categories at launch: inference, data, media, search, social, infrastructure, and trading. It integrates service providers including OpenAI, Bloomberg, CoinGecko, LinkedIn, X, and AWS Lambda, and supports permissionless integration.Erik Reppel, Engineering Lead at Coinbase Developer Platform, stated that the platform is essentially "an app store for agents." Currently, there are approximately 69,000 active agents on the x402 network, which have cumulatively completed over 165 million transactions, with a transaction volume reaching $50 million. Most services on Agent.market adopt a pay-per-use model, with some charging an "agentic premium" for AI agents. However, costs can be reduced through subscriptions in high-frequency usage scenarios. Meanwhile, the "agent economy" based on x402 is lowering customer acquisition and integration costs for businesses, unlocking previously constrained demand due to API keys, subscriptions, and micro-payment mechanisms.The x402 protocol is named after the HTTP 402 "Payment Required" status code, enabling websites, APIs, and AI agents to conduct instant micropayments via blockchain and traditional payment channels. The protocol is governed as an open standard by the x402 Foundation under the Linux Foundation and has received support from over 20 technology and crypto institutions including Cloudflare, Stripe, Amazon Web Services, Google, and Visa. (The Block)
American Express Launches AI Payment Development Tools and to Explore Stablecoin Settlement Use Cases
According to Fortune, payment giant American Express announced this week the launch of an agent commerce developer toolkit and pledged transaction protection for errors made by AI agents registered on its network. Agent commerce refers to payments or financial activities conducted on behalf of users by AI agents; while current applications remain limited, the concept has already drawn attention from major payment providers. American Express stated that its existing dispute resolution mechanisms can effectively address transaction risks introduced by AI agents and that it mitigates customer disputes and chargebacks by issuing payment credentials and implementing identity verification measures exclusively for verified agents. Several other payment companies—including Mastercard, Visa, and Stripe—have recently rolled out related infrastructure. American Express also revealed it is exploring the use of stablecoins in settlement but did not disclose specific plans.
Visa, Stripe, and Zodia Custody Become Early Validators of the Tempo Payment Blockchain
According to The Block, Visa, Stripe, and Zodia Custody—a digital asset custody firm backed by Standard Chartered Bank—have become the first validators on the Tempo payment blockchain. Tempo is an Ethereum-compatible Layer 1 blockchain designed specifically for high-throughput payments and stablecoin settlement, primarily targeting large institutions. Validators are responsible for verifying, ordering, and finalizing on-chain transactions, and are typically mature organizations with global operational capabilities. Tempo was incubated by Stripe and Paradigm, launched its private testnet in September 2025, and closed a $500 million Series A funding round in October at a valuation of approximately $5 billion. Recently, Tempo introduced its “Agent Payments” protocol—executed by AI agents—and has attracted infrastructure integrations including RedStone.
Analysis: Stablecoins are still primarily used for crypto transactions; payment applications have yet to break through.
The Kansas City Federal Reserve’s latest analysis indicates that stablecoins currently serve primarily as tools for cryptocurrency trading and liquidity provision within the financial ecosystem, rather than as mainstream payment instruments. According to the report, approximately 49% of stablecoin supply supports trading liquidity on centralized exchanges, decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols, and broader crypto infrastructure; 29% is used for wallet-to-wallet transfers or internal fund operations; and 21% remains idle—with less than 1% actually deployed for real-world payments. The report notes that, as natively crypto-designed instruments, stablecoins face constraints in cross-chain interoperability and integration with traditional financial systems, hindering their large-scale adoption for payments. Although payment processors such as Mastercard and Visa announced support for related technologies in 2026, stablecoin-based payment use cases remain in their infancy. Future development hinges on resolving critical challenges including interoperability, regulatory compliance, and identity verification.
Visa Launches AI-Powered Autonomous Shopping Platform “Smart Commerce Connect,” Enabling AI Agents to Independently Browse and Pay for Products
According to CoinTelegraph, Visa officially announced the launch of its “Intelligent Commerce Connect” platform this Wednesday, positioning it as a universal entry point for AI agent builders and merchants entering AI-driven commerce. The platform enables secure payment initiation, tokenization, spend controls, and identity verification through a single integration with Visa’s Acceptance Platform. It supports both Visa and non-Visa card payments and is compatible with leading AI agent protocols. The platform is currently in pilot phase and is scheduled for full rollout later in 2026.
Related news
Visa Integrates Polygon for Stablecoin Settlement, Reaching $7 Billion Annualized Volume
Payment giant Visa has officially integrated Polygon into its global stablecoin settlement program. Issuers and acquirers under Visa can now settle stablecoins via the Polygon network. Polygon claims to have become the world's largest dollar stablecoin payment network, with 34% of dollar stablecoin transfers and 54% of USDC transfers occurring on Polygon. The network has approximately 3.19 million weekly active stablecoin users and an on-chain stablecoin supply of $3.62 billion. In March, the number of dollar stablecoin transactions reached 178.1 million. Visa's stablecoin settlement program has reached an annualized run rate of $7 billion this quarter, a 50% increase from three months ago. Polygon emphasizes that its network offers sub-cent transaction fees and approximately 4-second transaction finality, and is already being used by institutions such as Stripe, Revolut, Flutterwave, and BlackRock for real financial activity settlement.
Visa partners with WeFi, co-founded by former Tether CEO, to connect crypto assets via its payment network
Visa has partnered with WeFi, an on-chain banking company founded by former Tether CEO Reeve Collins, aiming to enable digital asset payments through WeFi's on-chain banking infrastructure. WeFi allows users to hold assets in self-custodial wallets and retain control of their private keys, while ensuring they can spend at any merchant that accepts Visa payments.The project will initially launch in select markets in Europe, Asia, and Latin America, with plans to expand to other regions pending regulatory approvals. WeFi CEO Maksym Sakharov stated that stablecoins will be directly embedded into the underlying infrastructure, with settlement processes handled in the background, eliminating the need for users to manually perform conversions.
Visa Partners with WeFi—Founded by Former Tether CEO—to Advance On-Chain Payments, Enabling Direct Stablecoin Spending on the Visa Network
According to The Block, Visa has partnered with WeFi—a “blockchain-based bank” founded by Reeve Collins, former CEO of Tether—to enable users to hold digital assets in self-custodial wallets and spend them directly across the global Visa acceptance network, without depositing assets into centralized exchanges. Maksym Sakharov, Co-Founder and CEO of WeFi, stated that stablecoins are natively embedded into the underlying infrastructure, with settlements processed automatically in the background, delivering a user experience indistinguishable from conventional payments. This partnership will initially launch in select markets across Europe, Asia, and Latin America, with further expansion contingent upon regulatory approvals.
U.S. food delivery platform DoorDash is collaborating with Tempo to explore paying delivery personnel in stablecoins.
According to Fortune, Tempo—a blockchain project backed by Stripe and Paradigm—has launched “Stablecoin Advisory” services to support enterprises and financial institutions in adopting stablecoins, including identifying suitable use cases and deploying engineers to assist with stablecoin integration. The report states that DoorDash is collaborating with Tempo to explore paying delivery personnel in stablecoins; Stripe, Coastal Community Bank, and ARQ are also building stablecoin infrastructure on Tempo’s platform, while Visa, OnePay, Felix, Fifth Third Bank, and Howard Hughes Holdings are integrating their payment operations with Tempo.
Securitize Appoints Former IMF Representative to Its Board
Odaily News Securitize announced the appointment of investor, Blackstone advisor, and former International Monetary Fund (IMF) board member Sunil Sabharwal to its board. Sunil Sabharwal served as the U.S. representative to the IMF, confirmed by the U.S. Senate, from 2016 to 2018, for which he received the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Distinguished Service Award. He currently serves on the boards of Thunes and TookiTaki, and previously served as Chairman of payment companies Earthport and Ogone, which were acquired by Visa and Ingenico, respectively. Since 2021, he has served as an advisor and operating partner for the Blackstone Growth Equity Fund.Securitize currently manages over $4 billion in on-chain assets, including the BlackRock BUIDL Fund and tokenized products from institutions such as Apollo, BNY, Hamilton Lane, KKR, and VanEck. The company reached an acquisition agreement with a Cantor Fitzgerald affiliate last October, valuing Securitize at $1 billion. The merged company is set to list on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol CEPT.
Coinbase Incubated x402 Protocol Launches AI Agent App Store Agent.market
Odaily News The x402 protocol, incubated by Coinbase, has announced the launch of a unified platform called Agent.market, positioned as an "AI Agent App Store" for centrally showcasing and integrating various tools and services built on the protocol. According to the introduction, Agent.market already covers seven major categories at launch: inference, data, media, search, social, infrastructure, and trading. It integrates service providers including OpenAI, Bloomberg, CoinGecko, LinkedIn, X, and AWS Lambda, and supports permissionless integration.Erik Reppel, Engineering Lead at Coinbase Developer Platform, stated that the platform is essentially "an app store for agents." Currently, there are approximately 69,000 active agents on the x402 network, which have cumulatively completed over 165 million transactions, with a transaction volume reaching $50 million. Most services on Agent.market adopt a pay-per-use model, with some charging an "agentic premium" for AI agents. However, costs can be reduced through subscriptions in high-frequency usage scenarios. Meanwhile, the "agent economy" based on x402 is lowering customer acquisition and integration costs for businesses, unlocking previously constrained demand due to API keys, subscriptions, and micro-payment mechanisms.The x402 protocol is named after the HTTP 402 "Payment Required" status code, enabling websites, APIs, and AI agents to conduct instant micropayments via blockchain and traditional payment channels. The protocol is governed as an open standard by the x402 Foundation under the Linux Foundation and has received support from over 20 technology and crypto institutions including Cloudflare, Stripe, Amazon Web Services, Google, and Visa. (The Block)