Wirex and Stellar have announced that they have gone live with dual-stablecoin Visa Settlement in USDC and EURC for several users and partners.
Following this announcement, this development is expected to bring blockchain-powered efficiency directly into the manner in which Wirex users make payments worldwide.
In addition, this new settlement model is expected to move traditional card processing into the on-chain world, as well as reduce costs, increase speed, and enable a more transparent financial experience.
Moving traditional card processing into the on-chain landscape
According to the official press release, Wirex, in partnership with the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF), has activated on-chain settlement for card payments by leveraging two stablecoins—USDC and EURC. As a principal member of Visa, Wirex will have the possibility to settle transactions directly and securely with Visa in stablecoins, without depending on traditional bank intermediaries or legacy fiat systems. At the same time, stablecoin-native settlement will no longer be experimental, as it is currently live, operational, and aiming to deliver value to users and business partners around the world.
Included in the benefits of the initiative are faster processing (as on-chain settlement significantly reduces processing times), lower fees (through the process of bypassing older banking rails and manual processes, costs will be reduced, allowing the company to deliver more efficient payment experiences across global markets), always-on availability (this will take place as the blockchain networks operate 24/7, enabling payments to be supported without waiting for banking hours), optimised transparency (USDC and EURC transactions on the Stellar blockchain are set to be traceable at the protocol level, adding clarity and trust to every step of the payment process), as well as support for both USD and EUR (the dual-stablecoin support is expected to ensure flexibility for customers and partners operating across different regions, alongside strenghtening Wirex’s global settlement infrastructure and optimising both domestic and international use cases).
When making a purchase with the Wirex card, the settlement step is set to take place directly on-chain using USDC or EURC, being powered by Wirex Pay, an on-chain stablecoin infrastructure that connects self-custody wallets to real-time card and banking payments. With this in mind, the result includes efficiency, stablecoin programmability, and Visa’s acceptance network.
