Visa, one of the global giants of the digital financial system, has taken a key step in the massive adoption of cryptocurrencies by partnering with BRIDGE —a stablecoin-focused company acquired by Stripe — to launch a card that will allow payments with $USDT (Tether) in six Latin American countries: Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, and Chile. #StablecoinPayments

The operation of this solution is as simple as it is powerful: thanks to an API integration, any card issuer can quickly connect to the stablecoin network without the need to develop complex infrastructure.

When a user pays at a merchant with this Visa card, Bridge automatically converts the balance from stablecoins to local currency, ensuring that the merchant receives the money as if it were a traditional fiat transaction.

This will allow payments with USDT at over 150 million merchants that accept Visa globally, using compatible digital wallets.

This initiative not only responds to a technological need but also to an economic reality. Latin America is one of the regions with the highest adoption of stablecoins, driven by monetary instability and obstacles to international payments.

VISA recognizes this context and states that the regional approach aims to facilitate the everyday use of stablecoins by consumers and businesses as a means of value preservation and payment.

Finally, this move by Visa occurs in parallel to innovations more focused on decentralization and privacy, such as the Dolphin Card (from #aquaprotocol and #JAN3 ), which will allow spending $BTC without the need for identity verification processes (KYC). While major players like Visa open the doors to a regulated and massive use of crypto assets, alternatives that defend individual financial sovereignty are emerging.