Visa Adds Western Union’s USDPT for Stablecoin Settlement

The Monad Foundation announced that Visa had added support for Monad as a stablecoin settlement network, allowing participating Visa issuers and acquirers to use Western Union’s USDPT with subsecond finality. The announcement, made earlier this week, links a card network, a federally regulated digital-asset bank and an Ethereum-compatible Layer 1 blockchain in one settlement path.

Under the integration, issuers and acquirers receive an additional blockchain option for settling with Visa. Planned privacy features are designed to keep commercially sensitive transaction details confidential while retaining access for auditors and regulators. Subsecond finality means a transaction reaches its final settlement state in less than one second, shortening the interval before settlement becomes final.

What does this change for Visa clients?

For Visa clients, the change combines settlement choice with transaction controls. They can select USDPT as a native settlement asset through Anchorage, while Monad adds rapid finality and planned confidentiality without removing auditor or regulator access. The immediate change sits in the infrastructure behind the transfer: a regulated issuer, a federally chartered bank counterparty and a blockchain settlement venue.

Anchorage Digital said the collaboration advances its goal of becoming an institutional-scale settlement bank for stablecoins. The company already operates beyond token issuance, providing digital-asset custody and settlement infrastructure. For institutional users, the relevant consequence is access to one provider spanning issuance, custody and settlement, rather than evaluating the stablecoin only as an isolated payment token.

Anchorage Digital co-founder and CEO Nathan McCauley said the regulatory structure was the decisive element:

“Stablecoins have made money move faster, but speed alone won’t bring institutions onchain. They need a regulated institution behind the money. With Anchorage Digital select issued stablecoins now being supported on the Visa network, institutions get both: the speed of a stablecoin and the safety of a federally regulated bank behind it.”

Visa said the integration expands settlement options for its network participants.

Dan Roesbery, vice president of global crypto partnerships and go-to-market at Visa, said:

“As stablecoin payments grow, we’re focused on providing more choice for our partners in how they settle with Visa. Supporting USDPT as a native settlement asset, in partnership with Anchorage, gives them another trusted, institution-grade option backed by a federally chartered bank.”

The distinction matters because a token’s issuer, backing and settlement venue define the control framework around institutional use. Visa’s arrangement makes USDPT a native settlement asset within the network, with Anchorage providing the federally regulated issuance and bank connection. For issuers and acquirers, the practical change is an additional route for settling Visa transactions.

Western Union’s USDPT is one of six dollar-pegged stablecoins identified in the announcement. Anchorage Digital Bank’s federally regulated platform also issues:

• Tether’s USAT
• OSL Group’s USDGO
• Ethena Labs’ USDtb
• Falcon Finance’s fUSD
• Zelle’s ZLUSD

The company said each token is backed 1-to-1 by U.S. dollars and cash equivalents and issued under federal oversight. The practical effect is one dollar of cash or cash equivalents backing each token dollar, with federal supervision attached to the issuance platform.

The announcement named USDPT as the supported Visa settlement asset but did not specify when other listed tokens would enter the route.

Anchorage Digital also operates Atlas, an institutional counterparty settlement network designed to mitigate risk and facilitate off-exchange settlement, collateral management and cross-border transfers. Combining regulated stablecoin issuance with that infrastructure is intended to support institutional adoption of round-the-clock digital payments.

For practitioners, the operational significance is a linked model: token issuance, collateral and counterparty settlement are designed to run within the same regulated provider structure.

The market-structure change is that regulated stablecoin issuance is becoming directly usable inside a major card network’s settlement process. With no rollout deadline or enforcement window announced, the forward-looking test is whether issuer and acquirer participation turns the arrangement into a durable settlement channel.