• Visa's page, last updated 8 September 2026, says more than 160 stablecoin-linked card programs were live in its fiscal second quarter, tied in a footnote to its 29 April 2026 earnings call.
• Visa says payment volume on those programs grew nearly 200% year over year; the figure is Visa's own and predates the page by several months.
• Visa states that every card program must fund its daily settlement obligation before it collects from cardholders, so working capital shapes who can launch.
• Tim Joslyn, chief technology officer of Paymentology, told PYMNTS that merchants need only accept the card credential and that stablecoins add most value in funding the balance behind it.
• Neither source settles who bears loss in a disputed stablecoin-funded card payment, so risk teams should document funding, conversion and dispute responsibility themselves.

Stablecoins are reaching consumers through card credentials, and the harder problem is funding the balance behind the card. In an interview with PYMNTS, Paymentology's chief technology officer argued that stablecoin builders should work with card networks rather than rebuild checkout. Visa's own account points to a related pressure: each card program must fund daily settlement before it collects from cardholders.

Merchants accept the card, not the token

According to PYMNTS, Tim Joslyn, chief technology officer of Paymentology, says merchants do not need to accept stablecoins such as USDT or USDC; they need to accept the card credential linked to the balance. He argues the real opportunity is using stablecoins to fund card balances, especially for cross-border payments, rather than replacing checkout. This is one executive's view from an interview, and the piece does not compare card-linked models with other stablecoin payment channels.

Visa's program count is dated to April 2026

Visa's page, last updated 8 September 2026, says more than 160 stablecoin-linked card programs were live in its fiscal second quarter, with payment volume on them up nearly 200% year over year. A footnote ties the figure to Visa's fiscal Q2 2026 earnings call on 29 April 2026, so the data predates the page by several months. The page also cites a stablecoin settlement run rate, but flags it for confirmation with investor relations, so it is not used here.

Working capital sets the pace for new programs

Visa states that every card program has to fund its daily settlement obligation before it collects from cardholders, which makes working capital a constraint on who can launch. It describes a Credit Coop facility: a stablecoin-denominated revolving line secured by settlement receivables. Visa also says borrowing costs for participating programs have come down by as much as 30%, but it gives no baseline, period or method, so that claim is the company's own and unverified here.

Liability remains the open question

Joslyn says cards already carry established dispute processes that blockchains were not built to provide, and that the missing piece is agreements among participants defining who is liable and how funds flow back when something goes wrong. Neither PYMNTS nor Visa's page details who bears loss when a stablecoin-funded card payment is disputed. PYMNTS also cites research on stablecoin holders' spending intent without naming who conducted it, so that data is not relied on here.

What this means for risk and payments teams

For compliance and fraud teams, the practical step is documentation rather than assumption: record which party funds daily settlement, which converts the stablecoin into the currency the network settles in, and which answers for a disputed transaction. The cited sources describe the funding and acceptance structure but do not establish regulatory treatment of the funding layer, so teams should check program terms and regulator guidance directly.