Your crypto wallet could soon pay at 175 million shops worldwide: Visa and payments network Mesh have teamed up to let users spend crypto and stablecoin balances straight from their wallet apps, with no separate crypto card. For traders, it is another giant step in the race to turn stablecoins into everyday money — and the rollout details are now the thing to watch.
Key points:
• Visa and Mesh will let wallet users spend crypto and stablecoins at more than 175 million merchant locations in over 200 countries and territories.
• No separate card and no bank transfer first: Mesh converts crypto into fiat at the moment of payment.
• Participating wallets, supported devices and launch dates are still to be announced.
The deal works through a Visa payment credential set up inside participating wallet apps. Users will be able to pay in stores or online without first moving funds to a bank account or selling their coins, while merchants simply get paid through Visa's existing network with no change to their checkout systems. Mesh handles the transaction funding and the conversion between cryptocurrencies, stablecoins and fiat currencies, and also manages customer onboarding and identity (KYC) checks.
Mesh is no small startup: it is the crypto payments firm behind PayPal's "Pay with Crypto" launch, and in January it raised $75 million in a Dragonfly-led funding round that valued the company at $1 billion, with total funding past $130 million including PayPal Ventures and Coinbase Ventures. In September it integrated with Bybit Pay so users could spend straight from exchange balances. "Crypto never had a spending problem — it has a last-mile problem, and until now, closing it meant getting a separate card," Mesh CEO and co-founder Bam Azizi said.
Read also: Stablecoin Payments Explode 45% to $482 Billion — What's Next?
The partnership is the latest step in Visa's steady push to connect crypto balances to its merchant network: last year Visa teamed up with Bridge so developers could issue cards funded by stablecoin balances, and in April it planned self-custody spending with WeFi. It also lands in the same week that stablecoin payments were reported at $482 billion for the year so far, up 45%, as card giants race to plug crypto into everyday cash registers.
What happens next for crypto spending?
Everything now depends on the rollout: which big wallets join first, which devices are supported, and when the service actually goes live — those details are still to come. Traders will also watch the rivalry angle, because Mastercard is expanding on the same front with its own stablecoin platform and a new stablecoin risk-screening tool for banks announced the same day. If major wallets plug into Visa's 175 million locations quickly, stablecoin spending could move from headline to habit — and payment-linked tokens and stablecoin volumes will be the numbers to track.
— Crypto News Daily News Desk
This post is news only, not financial advice. Always do your own research before buying or selling crypto.
Sources: Cointelegraph, The Block
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