Visa partners with Aquanow to expand USDC stablecoin settlement across CEMEA

Published: 2025-11-28 21:34:22 |

Visa has teamed up with digital-asset infrastructure firm Aquanow to broaden stablecoin settlement across Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa (CEMEA). Building on Visa’s 2023 USDC pilot, the collaboration lets financial institutions on Visa’s network settle transactions in approved stablecoins (notably USDC) 24/7, cutting reliance on traditional clearing windows, lowering cross-border costs and reducing settlement times. Visa reports an annualized run rate for its stablecoin settlements near $2.5 billion. Aquanow CEO Phil Sham said the partnership combines Aquanow’s digital-asset expertise with Visa’s global payments reach to speed cross-border transfers and improve transparency. The move responds to growing institutional demand for faster, cheaper cross-border rails and follows comparable industry efforts to integrate euro stablecoins into regulated services. Traders should note this development increases on- and off‑chain utility for USDC within regulated payment networks and may boost institutional flows into USDC-managed rails.

Bullish

The announcement directly increases the utility and institutional adoption prospects for USDC by embedding it into Visa’s regulated payment rails and enabling 24/7 settlement across a large region (CEMEA). Short-term, the news may prompt modest inflows into USDC as payment firms and banks pilot or ramp settlement corridors, supporting demand for the token used in these rails. It also reduces frictions for cross-border transfers, which can increase transaction volumes routed through USDC. Longer-term, integration with a major payments network like Visa legitimizes USDC’s use in regulated environments and could attract sustained institutional liquidity, further supporting demand. Risks that temper the bullish view include potential regulatory constraints on banks’ stablecoin exposures and competition from other stablecoins and settlement solutions, but the immediate effect on USDC’s on-chain/off-chain utility and expected institutional flows points to a positive price impulse.