Visa has integrated Monad, a Layer 1 blockchain, as a new settlement option for stablecoin transactions, according to an announcement from the Monad Foundation. The move allows participating issuers and acquirers to process stablecoins directly over Monad's network.
Visa's strategy centers on supporting multiple underlying blockchains to reduce settlement fragmentation. The company previously integrated Ethereum and Solana for stablecoin settlement. In 2025, Visa completed over $150 million in stablecoin settlement transactions across various networks.
Monad operates as a Layer 1 network engineered for high transaction throughput and low latency. It achieves 10,000 transactions per second on testnet, exceeding Ethereum mainnet's typical 15 TPS. The network's parallel execution environment optimizes block processing.
Stablecoin settlement on public blockchains offers near-instantaneous finality and lower transaction costs than correspondent banking. Cross-border transfers through traditional channels face delays and higher fees. For Visa's high-volume payment flows, on-chain settlement represents a structural efficiency gain.
The key technical advantage is throughput. Monad's architecture directly addresses the bottleneck that constrains Ethereum and Solana during peak demand. However, a material counterargument persists: liquidity fragmentation. Spreading settlement across multiple chains—Ethereum, Solana, and now Monad—risks thin order books and execution slippage on each rail. Visa's approach abstracts this complexity for clients, but it does not eliminate it.
The Monad integration follows Visa's pilot programs with stablecoin issuers including Circle. The company has also explored central bank digital currency pilots.
