The Day Visa and Mastercard Become 'Stablecoin Payment Companies'—The End of the Card Fee Model and the Next Growth Story

In 2025, global financial infrastructure is in the midst of the most dramatic structural transformation in the last 50 years. The duopoly of Visa and Mastercard, which has long reigned as the 'messaging layer' for global commerce, is facing a seismic shift that threatens its very foundation due to the rise of blockchain technology, particularly US dollar-pegged stablecoins. Once merely a speculative trading tool in the crypto market, stablecoins have now grown to a scale that surpasses Visa's annual processing volume, and are establishing themselves as 'high-speed payment rails' that replace existing interbank settlement networks (SWIFT and ACH).

This report provides a thorough analysis of why Visa and Mastercard are moving to incorporate stablecoins not as an 'enemy,' but as 'essential infrastructure,' based on the latest leaked reports from The Information and the facts of strategic partnerships and technology adoptions disclosed throughout 2025. This is not merely a technical update, but a battle for 'infrastructure sovereignty' that will go down in financial history, centered on the control of international remittances, B2B payments, and merchant settlement.

The latest developments reported by The Information and the situation in 2025

On a Friday in November 2025, The Information, a leading media outlet in the technology industry, reported that Visa and Mastercard are considering direct investments in the stablecoin ecosystem. According to this report, both companies are accelerating investments in stablecoin-related technologies to capture the surge in demand, particularly in emerging markets, and to strengthen their networks against competitors.

This move is not sudden. From 2024 to 2025, the actions of both companies had moved beyond the 'experimental' phase and into the 'live operation' phase.