Visa and Brale are testing a new way to settle payments using a dollar-backed stablecoin called SBC on the Canton Network, a permissioned blockchain built by Digital Asset. The pilot was announced this week, signaling another step by major financial firms to bring stablecoins into institutional settlement rails.
The pilot's mechanics
Brale issues SBC, a U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin, and the Canton Network provides a privacy-preserving ledger designed specifically for regulated financial institutions. The trial lets Visa and Brale explore whether a stablecoin can handle wholesale settlement — the kind of large-value transfers that typically move through central bank systems or correspondent banking networks.
The two companies said the pilot is live, but did not share a timeline for a wider rollout or specific transaction volumes. The Defiant first reported the news.
Digital Asset's Canton Network
The Canton Network is a permissioned blockchain — not open to anyone like Ethereum or Solana — but it does have a privacy feature that lets counterparties see only what they need to see. Digital Asset, the firm behind the DAML smart contract language, built it. The network has been courting banks and custodians for years, and this pilot gives it a concrete use case: a stablecoin settlement channel between a card network and a stablecoin issuer.
The choice of a permissioned network matters. Regulated firms often want control over who joins a network, and Canton's architecture gives them that without sacrificing privacy between transactions. That's a different pitch than public blockchains, where everything is visible by default.
The pilot is just a test for now. Visa has explored blockchain-based settlement before, including earlier work with USDC on Ethereum. This time, the focus is on a permissioned environment with a dedicated stablecoin. Whether SBC gains traction beyond this pilot depends on how the test goes, and whether other institutions join the network. Neither company has said when they plan to report results.
