Visa is significantly expanding its stablecoin card partnership with Bridge, growing the program from its initial Latin American rollout to 18 countries — with plans to surpass 100 markets across Europe, Asia-Pacific, Africa and the Middle East by year-end. The initiative, first launched in April 2025, previously supported countries including Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Chile, allowing users to spend stablecoins through Visa-linked cards while merchants received local fiat currency.

The expansion underscores intensifying competition in the stablecoin payments space. Recently, Mastercard enabled stablecoin spending in the US through the self-custodial wallet MetaMask. As traditional payment networks increasingly integrate blockchain rails, stablecoins are moving from niche crypto tools to mainstream financial infrastructure.