Visa lets partners settle in Western Union’s USDPT stablecoin

At a glance

• Visa and eligible partners can now use USDPT, Western Union’s dollar stablecoin, to settle their VisaNet obligations, Anchorage Digital said in a release on 12 Nov.
• USDPT is the first stablecoin issued by Anchorage Digital Bank that Visa supports. The deal sets up a way to look at more of the bank’s coins later.

Anchorage Digital Bank, the federally chartered crypto bank that mints USDPT for Western Union, said Visa will support select stablecoins it issues as “native settlement assets” on the card network, starting with USDPT.

Settlement is the step after a card payment, when the banks that issue cards and the companies that sign up merchants pay Visa, and each other, the net amounts they owe. Visa calls those balances VisaNet obligations. Paying them in a stablecoin replaces a bank wire with an on-chain transfer.

“Stablecoins have made money move faster, but speed alone won’t bring institutions onchain. They need a regulated institution behind the money,” Anchorage co-founder and chief executive Nathan McCauley said in the release.

Dan Roesbery, Visa’s vice president for global crypto partnerships, said in the same release that USDPT gives Visa’s partners “another trusted, institution-grade option backed by a federally chartered bank.”

Who issues what

Anchorage’s bank issues stablecoins for several companies. Each is backed by US dollars and cash equivalents and redeemable one for one, the bank says.

Source: Anchorage Digital release, 12 Nov 2026.

USDPT went live on Solana in May, according to Unchained and The Block. The Block reported that Western Union first rolled it out in the Philippines and Bolivia.

On its 27 Oct earnings call Visa named five stablecoins it already supports for settlement, USDC, USDG, EURC, PYUSD and SBC, Unchained reported, citing a third-party transcript. Visa is also an investor in Anchorage, the release says.

What it changes

For cardholders and merchants, nothing changes at the till. The change sits between Visa and its partner banks and payment firms, which gain another dollar token they can use to pay their balances.

Card networks have been building on stablecoins from the consumer side too, as with Mesh’s Visa card that spends stablecoin balances. The settlement push comes as the supply of dollar stablecoins fell by $14.5 billion in 30 days to 11 Nov, the steepest monthly drop since mid-2022, DefiLlama data show. For the basics, here is what a dollar stablecoin is.

The release does not say which blockchains USDPT settlement will use, which partners count as eligible, or how much volume is expected. Visa and Western Union had not issued their own statements, Unchained reported.

Next, watch whether Visa adds a second Anchorage-issued coin, and which chains USDPT settlement runs on.

This article is for information only and is not investment advice.