Key Takeaways:
Visa is testing Brale's SBC stablecoin on the Canton Network, adding a privacy-focused settlement option as the dollar-pegged token market approaches $300 billion.
Visa and Brale launched a proof-of-concept on June 4 to evaluate SBC, a dollar-backed stablecoin issued by Brale, as a settlement layer on the Canton Network's privacy-controlled blockchain infrastructure.
"Stablecoin settlement has shown how blockchain infrastructure can improve the speed and efficiency of money movement," Cuy Sheffield, Head of Crypto at Visa, said. "Through our work with Brale, we're exploring how SBC on the Canton Network can support institutional settlement use cases that require both programmability and privacy controls."
The Canton Network, launched in 2023, is designed to let participants transact on shared infrastructure while limiting the visibility of sensitive transaction data — a key requirement for financial institutions. Visa began enabling stablecoin settlement in 2021 and has since expanded testing across nine blockchain platforms including Ethereum, Solana, Avalanche, Base, Polygon and Stellar. The company's stablecoin settlement pilot reached a $7 billion annualized run rate in April, up 50% from the prior quarter.
The total supply of dollar-backed stablecoins is approaching $300 billion, with Tether's USDT accounting for about $188 billion and Circle's USDC holding around $76 billion, according to DefiLlama. The collaboration between Visa and Brale remains in the evaluation phase, with both companies testing transaction performance and settlement efficiency before any wider deployment.
"Financial institutions are increasingly looking for stablecoin infrastructure that meets their operational, regulatory, and privacy requirements," Ben Milne, founder and chief executive of Brale, said. "Working with Visa to explore SBC on Canton is an important step toward making stablecoin-based settlement more practical and scalable for real-world payment flows."
SBC functions as a dollar-pegged token backed by reserves held by Brale, a regulated stablecoin infrastructure platform. The company provides modular API-based services across issuance, minting, redemption, compliance controls, treasury management and blockchain interoperability for institutional and enterprise use cases.
The proof-of-concept builds on Visa's broader blockchain payment strategy. The card network first introduced stablecoin settlement capabilities in 2021 and has steadily expanded the program across multiple blockchain networks. The addition of Canton expands its testing infrastructure for privacy-focused use cases, a growing priority as financial institutions evaluate how to use blockchain-based settlement while meeting strict compliance requirements.
Unlike many public blockchain networks where transaction data is visible to all participants, Canton's architecture allows institutions to retain authority over confidential financial information. This design supports compliance requirements in regulated environments and addresses a key barrier to broader institutional adoption of stablecoin-based settlement.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
