Visa’s Shift to Onchain Finance Infrastructure
Visa, the company that built the world’s largest payment network processing nearly $16 trillion annually, is now setting its sights on decentralized finance. But they’re calling it something different – “onchain finance.” This rebranding seems deliberate, perhaps to make the concept more palatable to traditional financial institutions. The timing is interesting too, coming as it does during discussions around the GENIUS Act.
In their recent report titled “Stablecoins Beyond Payments: The Onchain Lending Opportunity,” Visa outlines a vision where institutions could serve as liquidity providers to programmable lending protocols. The company itself wouldn’t be taking on lending risk directly. Instead, they want to provide the data, compliance, and infrastructure that would make participation viable for traditional players.
The Scale of Onchain Lending
What caught my attention was the sheer scale already present in this space. According to Visa’s research, the onchain finance market has issued more than $670 billion in stablecoin loans since 2020. That’s not small change by any measure. Lending activity apparently reached new highs in mid-2025, which suggests this isn’t just a passing trend.
Visa argues this scale demonstrates that stablecoins have evolved beyond being mere trading tools. They’re becoming the backbone of automated credit markets that operate continuously and settle instantly. I think there’s some truth to this – the numbers don’t lie.
Existing Models in Action
The report highlights three real-world examples where stablecoin-based credit is already functioning at scale. Morpho acts as a liquidity “meta-layer” connecting institutional wallets and exchanges like Coinbase and Ledger. It allows borrowers to use tokenized bitcoin as collateral for USDC loans.
Then there’s Credit Coop, which Visa directly partners with. This platform uses smart contracts to split and redirect merchant receivables. And Huma Finance supports cross-border working-capital loans while automating supplier payments and recycling liquidity to generate what they claim are double-digit annual yields.
Visa’s Infrastructure Strategy
Visa’s approach here mirrors their traditional finance strategy. They’re not planning to issue tokens or directly fund loans. It’s purely a technology play without exposure to counterparty lending risk. They want to own the rails – the APIs, analytics, and settlement systems that allow programmable credit to connect with traditional finance.
They wouldn’t be involved in crypto projects directly, just facilitating the connections between them and traditional financial institutions. It’s a familiar pattern – just as they turned card payments into a global network, they now hope to do the same for onchain credit.
This positioning as the infrastructure layer of programmable finance makes sense from a business perspective. They’re leveraging their trusted brand and existing relationships to bridge two worlds that have often operated separately. Whether institutions with their trillions in capital will follow remains to be seen, but the foundation is certainly being laid.
