Visa has joined Singapore’s BLOOM initiative and selected Nium for a pilot testing seven-day settlement with regulated U.S. dollar and euro-backed stablecoins across cross-border payment flows.
Summary
- Visa has joined Singapore’s BLOOM initiative to test stablecoin settlement with Nium.
- The pilot will explore settlements seven days a week, including weekends and public holidays.
- Regulated stablecoins backed by the U.S. dollar and euro will be supported.
- Nium is Visa’s first partner for a stablecoin settlement pilot under BLOOM.
Visa said in an announcement that the Monetary Authority of Singapore-led program will test how financial institutions can connect traditional payment systems with stablecoin payment rails while retaining existing security and compliance controls.
Nium will serve as Visa’s first partner under the framework, with the companies examining whether stablecoins can settle payment obligations throughout the week, including weekends and public holidays. Traditional payment settlement often remains tied to banking days, creating periods when institutions cannot complete parts of the settlement process.
Under the pilot, Visa and Nium will study how regulated stablecoins backed by major currencies can reduce such delays and give participating financial institutions faster access to funds. The initial scope includes dollar and euro-denominated stablecoins, though the companies did not identify individual tokens that would be used.
Visa stablecoin settlement pilot targets seven-day payments
For financial institutions, the test focuses on the settlement layer behind payments instead of changing how customers initiate transactions. Visa said stablecoins could make payment flows more programmable and allow institutions to manage settlement outside normal banking hours while using its network, security systems and compliance controls.
Adeline Kim, Visa’s group country manager for Regional Southeast Asia and senior vice president for Global Clients and Acquirers in Asia Pacific, said different forms of money will increasingly need to operate across connected payment networks.
“The future of payments will be shaped by how different forms of money and payment networks work together for different use cases,” Kim said.
Visa’s work under BLOOM follows several stablecoin settlement projects that have moved beyond tests focused only on public blockchain transfers.
In June, crypto.news reported on a private settlement test involving Visa, Brale and the Canton Network. The proof of concept used Brale’s U.S. dollar-backed SBC stablecoin to examine whether institutions could settle transactions onchain while limiting the public visibility of sensitive payment and settlement data.
Privacy was central to that project because regulated financial institutions often need blockchain infrastructure that can preserve transaction confidentiality while keeping records available for compliance and audit requirements.
BLOOM expands Singapore’s tokenized settlement work
The Monetary Authority of Singapore introduced BLOOM in 2025 as a framework for developing settlement systems based on tokenized bank liabilities and regulated stablecoins.
As previously covered on crypto.news, BLOOM was designed around cross-border and domestic payments, multi-currency settlement and institutional applications including corporate treasury, trade finance and automated payments. Participants named at the time included Circle, DBS, OCBC, Partior, Stripe and UOB.
BLOOM also built on Project Orchid, MAS’s earlier work on programmable money and a potential digital Singapore dollar. More than 10 Project Orchid trials were used to study practical digital-money applications before parts of that work were carried into commercial projects.
One BLOOM test announced in March involved Ripple and supply-chain finance company Unloq using RLUSD on the XRP Ledger. The companies were testing a trade-finance system in which settlement could be linked with shipment verification and financing conditions.
Visa’s pilot adds a global card network and a cross-border payments provider to the program, with the focus placed specifically on interoperability between conventional payment infrastructure and stablecoin settlement.
Kim said Visa is examining how stablecoins can complement existing payment systems while preserving “the security, resilience and compliance standards that underpin global commerce.”
Nium adds BLOOM to its stablecoin payment work
For Nium, the Singapore pilot follows its previous work using stablecoins for international business payments.
In April, the company announced a USDC payout integration with Coinbase that brought stablecoin-based cross-border payments into Nium’s network spanning more than 190 countries. The setup allows businesses to fund payouts using USDC and settle in either stablecoins or local currencies.
Coinbase provides custody, liquidity and wallet infrastructure for the service. Nium said at the time that clients could fund payouts on demand instead of maintaining prefunded balances for each market, addressing one of the liquidity requirements associated with conventional international payment systems.
The BLOOM pilot tests another part of the process by focusing on settlement between participating financial institutions and Visa.
Amaresh Mohan, Nium’s chief risk and compliance officer, said the companies are building infrastructure connecting established payment networks with stablecoin rails.
“This convergence is not only inevitable, it’s essential,” Mohan said, adding that combining established payment networks with programmable digital currencies could provide new settlement options for financial institutions.
Visa has expanded onchain settlement across nine networks
Visa already runs stablecoin settlement infrastructure across several blockchain networks.
An April stablecoin settlement expansion added Base, Polygon, Canton, Arc and Tempo to its pilot, bringing the total number of supported networks to nine alongside Ethereum, Solana, Avalanche and Stellar. Visa reported an annualized stablecoin settlement run rate of about $7 billion at the time, up 50% from the previous quarter.
By June, Visa said issuing banks participating in its onchain programs could already settle with the network seven days a week. The company was also working to extend seven-day settlement to acquirers, which receive funds on behalf of merchants after card transactions are processed.
Visa has also added support for multiple stablecoins and currencies to keep its settlement system from depending on a single token. Its infrastructure has supported assets including USDC and euro-backed EURC, while the company has continued adding blockchain networks based on institutional settlement requirements.
During Visa’s July fiscal third-quarter earnings call, Chief Executive Ryan McInerney described the company’s stablecoin strategy as “multi-coin, multi-chain” and said Visa did not intend to select a single stablecoin winner. The company reported $11.63 billion in quarterly net revenue, while payment volume and processed transactions each rose 10% year over year and cross-border volume increased 13%.
For the Singapore test, Visa and Nium have not disclosed a launch timetable, expected transaction volume, or the financial institutions that could participate beyond the two companies. Mohan said the BLOOM work is intended to establish interoperability between traditional and stablecoin-based rails while keeping compliance requirements embedded in the settlement process.
