Visa Backs Open USD but Refuses to Pick Sides in Stablecoin Battle

• Visa won’t back a single stablecoin winner.
• Open USD gains support from Visa and 140+ firms.
• Visa bets on stablecoin infrastructure, not issuers.

Payments giant positions itself as the bridge connecting every stablecoin rather than betting on a single winner.

The battle for stablecoin dominance is heating up, but Visa has made one thing clear: it has no interest in choosing a champion.

While the payments giant recently joined more than 140 companies backing the launch of Open USD (OUSD), Visa CEO Ryan McInerney says the company’s strategy is not about replacing Tether’s USDT or Circle’s USDC. Instead, Visa wants to build the infrastructure that allows every compliant stablecoin to move seamlessly across the global financial system.

That distinction could prove far more significant than supporting any single digital dollar.

Visa Wants to Power the Ecosystem—Not Own It

Speaking during the company’s latest earnings call, McInerney dismissed suggestions that Visa sees Open USD as a direct challenger to the industry’s two largest stablecoins.

“Our role is not to pick winners,” he said.

Rather than backing one issuer over another, Visa intends to remain “multi-coin” and “multi-chain,” allowing banks, fintechs, and payment providers to connect securely to whichever stablecoin ultimately gains widespread adoption.

The strategy reflects a broader shift in the payments industry. Instead of competing in the issuance of digital assets, established financial firms increasingly see greater value in building the rails that enable those assets to circulate.

Why Open USD Attracted Attention

Open USD entered the spotlight after a consortium of more than 140 companies—including Visa, Mastercard, Stripe, BlackRock and Coinbase—announced plans to launch the dollar-pegged stablecoin later this year.

The sheer number of high-profile participants immediately sparked speculation that the project could emerge as a serious competitor to Tether’s USDT and Circle’s USDC, which together dominate the global stablecoin market.

Some analysts even suggested that Open USD could reshape the competitive landscape.

Investment bank Mizuho cited the initiative as a potential threat to Circle, while Bernstein recently lowered its price target for the company despite maintaining a more measured view of Open USD’s long-term impact.

Visa’s Strategy Is Larger than One Stablecoin

Although Open USD may become Visa’s initial launch partner, the company is positioning itself above the competition rather than inside it.

McInerney’s comments reinforce the idea that Visa wants to become the universal gateway connecting multiple stablecoin networks regardless of who controls them.

That approach mirrors a recent Mizuho analysis describing Visa as the “stablecoin of stablecoins.”

Instead of relying on the success of one issuer, Visa could benefit from the overall expansion of the digital dollar market. As more stablecoins enter circulation, businesses and financial institutions will need reliable infrastructure to transfer value between different blockchains, wallets and payment networks.

Visa appears determined to become that infrastructure.

Building the rails for institutional adoption

The strategy extends beyond public statements.

Earlier this month, Visa introduced an internal platform designed to help banks and fintech companies integrate stablecoins into their existing payment operations more efficiently.

The platform will initially launch with Open USD support, but Visa has repeatedly emphasized that its long-term objective is interoperability rather than exclusivity.

For financial institutions, this reduces the risk of committing to a single digital asset while giving them flexibility as the stablecoin market evolves.

Why this matters

Visa’s latest comments signal an important evolution in how traditional payment companies view digital assets.

The conversation is no longer centered on whether stablecoins will become part of mainstream finance. Instead, attention is shifting toward the infrastructure required to support a future where multiple regulated digital dollars coexist.

If that future materializes, the companies generating the greatest value may not necessarily be the issuers of stablecoins themselves. Instead, the biggest beneficiaries could be the firms providing the networks, compliance tools, and payment infrastructure that allow those stablecoins to move across the global economy.

In that sense, Visa may be making one of its most strategic crypto moves yet—not by choosing the next winning stablecoin, but by ensuring it can support whichever one ultimately wins.