Reap and Visa announced a strategic collaboration on September 23, 2026 to bring stablecoin-linked Visa credit card programs to more than 100 markets globally, powered by Reap’s card issuance infrastructure and expanding its issuing footprint beyond Asia and Latin America into Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.
The arrangement lets fintechs, businesses, and platforms build card programs where stablecoins fund spending, repay balances, and support cross-border payments, subject to local regulatory requirements, according to the companies’ announcement.
Reap Co-Founder Daren Guo said stablecoins opened the door, but the real unlock is the compliant infrastructure pathway this creates for any company to issue cards and scale through a single partnership.
Reap shared the development through its official X account:
The announcement does not mean merchants directly receive stablecoins when customers make purchases. Instead, stablecoins operate within the funding and settlement process behind the card experience.
What Reap and Visa Announced
Reap’s stablecoin card program combines blockchain-based assets with Visa’s payment network, letting businesses use stablecoin balances within financial operations while merchants continue accepting payments through traditional Visa rails.
Reap supplies card-network authorization, processing, compliance frameworks, and operating support so partners can launch programs without building every layer themselves, comparable to the broader landscape covered in a roundup of 11 best crypto card options in 2026.
| Reap Stablecoin Card Expansion | Details |
| Partner | Visa |
| Geographic expansion | 100+ markets |
| New regions covered | Europe, Middle East, Africa |
| Main use case | Stablecoin-enabled corporate payments |
Table 1. Key details of Reap’s Visa stablecoin card expansion.
Visa is seeing a $20 billion annual run rate of global stablecoin settlement volume, up 15 times year-over-year, with more than 160 stablecoin card programs already on its network and acceptance reaching more than 175 million merchants worldwide.
Stablecoin-linked card programs are growing at roughly a 106% compound annual growth rate, compared with just 5% for peer-to-peer payments, according to Artemis Research.
Why This Matters for Cross-Border Business Payments
Cross-border businesses often manage multiple currencies, banking relationships, and payment providers internationally. Stablecoin-based payment systems reduce some of this complexity by letting businesses maintain digital-dollar liquidity while accessing existing payment networks, rather than requiring merchants to accept stablecoins directly, with the payment layer converting blockchain-based funds into transactions that work through Visa’s infrastructure.
Reap also intends to introduce multicurrency stablecoin card capability, letting programs support additional currencies alongside dollar-based funding, with peso, Hong Kong dollar, euro, won, and yen tokens under consideration, making stablecoin credit cards useful for local spending rather than only dollar-denominated transactions.
How Fast Reap Has Been Growing
The expansion positions Reap’s card program as a business payment solution rather than only a cryptocurrency product. Reap’s card and payments volume rose 33% year-over-year in the first half of 2026, following a tripling of revenue and volume in 2025.
Founded and headquartered in Hong Kong, Reap employs around 300 people worldwide and processed billions in stablecoin-funded transaction flows in 2025 alone, building on its recent move to make bitcoin and virtual-asset balances spendable through card infrastructure, following the launch of Reap Sentry, a managed fraud-risk service.
A Notable Detail Missing From the Headlines
This expansion arrives while Reap is separately the subject of a pending acquisition. Payward, the parent company of Kraken, announced plans to acquire Reap for up to $600 million, a deal expected to close in the second half of 2026 and still pending, a corporate move covered alongside Kraken’s own IPO plans.
Reap announced today’s expansion under its own brand, independent of that pending transaction, though the acquisition adds context for how quickly this infrastructure could become part of a larger exchange’s product suite.
Why Visa’s Network Solves the Merchant Problem
Visa’s network provides access to existing merchant acceptance infrastructure, helping stablecoin payment companies solve one of the largest adoption barriers: merchants generally don’t need to change their payment systems.
The result mirrors a broader trend among payment companies exploring stablecoins as settlement infrastructure rather than a replacement for traditional payment systems.
What Comes Next for the Reap-Visa Rollout
The next phase will depend on business adoption and how Reap expands the program across its 100-plus supported markets. The companies have not announced specific transaction targets or a rollout schedule for the multicurrency stablecoin card capability.
What this means for you: Reap’s Visa expansion shows how stablecoins are moving from crypto-native applications into business payment infrastructure. The key development is not that merchants are accepting stablecoins directly, but that companies can use digital assets behind existing payment networks while maintaining access to traditional card acceptance.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial or investment advice. Stablecoin payments involve regulatory, custody, liquidity, technology, card-network, and operational risks. Availability may vary by jurisdiction, asset type, and business eligibility.
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