Visa and Bridge to Launch Stablecoin-Linked Cards in Latin America

Visa has teamed up with Bridge, a stablecoin infrastructure startup recently acquired by Stripe, to roll out stablecoin-linked Visa cards across several Latin American countries. The partnership aims to make everyday purchases with cryptocurrency more accessible by allowing users to spend stablecoins through Visa's global merchant network.

The launch comes as the U.S. Congress is moving closer to passing legislation that would formally regulate stablecoins — a development experts say could open the door for more financial institutions to use or issue these digital assets.

Stablecoins, which are typically pegged 1:1 to the U.S. dollar, are widely used for crypto trading and moving funds between tokens. Supporters argue they have the potential to revolutionize payments, but adoption in retail settings has been slow due to limited merchant acceptance of crypto.

Bridge will handle the backend infrastructure of these transactions — converting stablecoin balances into local currencies when users make purchases with their Visa cards. The new product will initially launch in Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, and Chile, with plans to expand into Europe, Africa, and Asia soon.

As part of the collaboration, developers using Bridge can integrate stablecoin-linked Visa cards into their applications. These cards will function like any other Visa product, usable at merchants worldwide.

"We feel like the moment is now to take some of the things that we've already been doing in a more experimental, pilot basis and start to expose them to the world as capabilities that we anticipate will really start to become big and meaningful and globally scalable," said Jack Forestell, Visa’s chief product and strategy officer.

Zach Abrams, CEO of Bridge, emphasized the importance of integrating stablecoins with familiar financial infrastructure. “This enables folks to use and take advantage of the benefits of stablecoins wherever they are in the world, but remain wholly connected with the financial tools that folks use,” he said.