Visa is working with WeFi, a deobanking infrastructure provider that combines traditional banking with decentralized finance, to explore stablecoin-based payments and on-chain banking in select markets across Europe, Asia, and Latin America, the companies said Tuesday.
The partnership will test how on-chain banking and stablecoins can be embedded into traditional payment ecosystems under established regulatory frameworks.
“Access to modern financial services is still uneven globally,” Reeve Collins, co-founder and Chairman of WeFi, stated. “On-chain banking closes that gap, and partnering with Visa makes it usable at scale.”
At launch, the focus will be on regulated stablecoins designed for everyday payments. The companies aim to let consumers spend seamlessly across Visa’s network and enable businesses to benefit from faster, more predictable cross-border settlement, all without requiring changes to existing payment behaviours.
The initiative reflects growing demand for infrastructure that can translate blockchain-based assets into everyday economic activity as stablecoins and tokenized assets gain traction as settlement tools.
“As interest in digital assets grows, our focus is on making these new models practical at scale by connecting them to payment experiences people already trust,” Mathieu Altwegg, Head of Product & Solutions Europe at Visa, explained. “This collaboration demonstrates how Visa’s global network interacts with onchain models, while operating within established regulatory frameworks and the reliability consumers and merchants expect.”
WeFi’s platform is designed to bridge DeFi and traditional finance, enabling users to interact with digital assets while accessing established payment networks.
Unlike many crypto solutions that rely on custodial models, WeFi separates asset control from payment execution, offering a hybrid structure that balances user autonomy with regulatory compliance, as noted by the team.
The companies may expand support to additional digital assets over time and extend the rollout to other regions subject to regulatory approvals and local partnerships.
“People expect money to work seamlessly across borders, without unnecessary complexity. We see this partnership as a way to work with Visa’s capabilities as we continue to develop WeFi’s deobanking offering across key regions,” Maksym Sakharov, co-founder and Group CEO of WeFi, noted.