jakiro
Author: 0xTodd; Source: X, @0xTodd
Let’s talk about Visa’s support for stablecoin settlement.
First of all, many people may not understand how Visa (or Mastercard) actually works.
Visa itself does not issue cards, nor does it lend money to merchants. It is a pure intermediary, mainly responsible for information processing and rule formulation.
Taking the United States as an example,The Visa operation process is mainly divided into three stages:
The first stage: authorization (can I withdraw money?)
When a cardholder swipes their card at a merchant, the merchant’s acquirer sends the transaction information to VisaNet.VisaNet identifies the card number and routes the request to the card issuer.The card issuing bank checks the account balance or limit and responds with “Approval” or “Rejection”.Visa passes the results back to the acquirer and then to the merchant.
Phase Two: Liquidation
Usually every evening or at the end of a trading batch.The acquiring bank packages all transaction data for this day and sends it to VisaNet.VisaNet performs the netting calculation.
It calculates each bank’s net position.For example, Issuer A’s customers spent a total of $100 million today, and Issuer A’s merchants (if it was also an acquirer) were due $20 million today.Issuer A’s net obligation is then to pay $80 million.
The third stage: settlement (money transfer)
Based on the net amount calculated by the clearing, Visa instructs the clearing bank to transfer the funds between the accounts of the issuing bank and the acquiring bank.In the past, channels such as wire transfer were used.
—Separating line—
This time Visa announced support for $USDC, which does not mean that retail investors can spend stablecoins through Visa, butCard issuers and merchants can use stablecoins to repay debts in the third phase of settlement.
To translate, that is to say: In the past, accounts owed by Visa banks to Visa merchants could only be repaid through traditional bank transfers (USD legal currency).But now, they can transfer USDC directly from their cryptocurrency wallet to Visa to settle the account.
Coincidentally, Mastercard also officially announced yesterday that it supports stablecoin settlement in the Middle East.And Visa is in the United States this time. It can be seen that as I predicted before, after the passage of the Stablecoin Genius Act in the United States, the entire industry is accelerating crazily.
However, one thing that needs to be explained is that Visa is talking about “Select partners” here.The implication is that this is not a feature open to all U.S. banks. It is estimated that it is mainly launched for crypto-related financial institutions or companies.
All in all, this is still a bit awesome,It means that the anchor of stable currency = real money is deepening.The more people accept that “stablecoin = real money”, the more truly the stablecoin = real money, and the tighter the anchor.
