Invest1 publisher2 min readPublished
Visa's Abu Dhabi blockchain pact with ADI Foundation stays at the memorandum stage
Visa signed a cooperation memorandum with Abu Dhabi's ADI Foundation to study blockchain payments, without naming a chain, stablecoin, product or launch date. Until a settlement asset and a date appear, the pact gives Visa a regional position for the stablecoin settlement work it has been testing with Lloyds and in South Korea.
The Investor · Invest desk
Drafted by a language model from the sources cited here and checked against its claim ledger before publication. How we use AISend a correction
What happened
- ADI Foundation says its infrastructure is designed for institutional adoption, with ADI Chain focused on stablecoins and real-world assets in the Middle East and North Africa.
- The two will study how blockchain systems can work with existing electronic payment networks without banks having to replace the infrastructure they already use.
- Earlier this month Lloyds settled $750,000 of payment obligations with Visa in USDC during a seven-day live pilot, with settlement completed in under an hour, weekends included.
- An August deal with South Korea's Shinhan Financial Group covered tests of stablecoin issuance, transfers and redemption, plus digital assets for card payment settlement.
Compiled by The InvestorSomething wrong?How this is made
Why it matters
- constraint With banks keeping their current systems, ADI Chain's role is limited to plugging in behind Visa's network, and Visa keeps the bank and cardholder relationships.
- precedent The Lloyds pilot sets the bar a MENA follow-up has to clear: a named coin bought on a regulated exchange, a bank counterparty, and money arriving at Visa.
- decision Banks in the region weighing stablecoin settlement get a Visa-linked chain to evaluate but no launch date to plan a pilot budget around, so money they commit now pays for study.
Spread across its seven days, the Lloyds pilot averaged about $107,000 a day [15]. That is a test-sized sum. According to crypto.news, the pilot covered settlement between institutions at hours when conventional banking was shut, and it did not let customers pay in stablecoins [10].
The ADI agreement sits a stage before any of that. It is an exploratory deal that follows a Memorandum of Cooperation [2]. Its brief covers digital payment solutions, payment infrastructure and ways to support digital asset transaction flows [14]. Svyatoslav Senyuta, ADI Foundation's chief business officer, said the work with Visa would examine "how blockchain-based infrastructure and electronic payment networks may complement one another" [7]. Vira Platonova, Visa's global head of money movement, said: "The way money moves is evolving rapidly." [6]
This year Visa has spent its effort on one partner per market, or rather one or two. Shinhan Financial Group signed in South Korea in August and Dunamu followed days later [11][12]. The Lloyds pilot was reported earlier this month [8], and ADI now covers Abu Dhabi [1]. Going by what has been disclosed, Visa has not committed any of its own settlement flows to ADI Chain [2][3].
From here the pact could become a Lloyds-style pilot, with a named dollar stablecoin settling obligations between Visa and a bank in the region. It could follow the Shinhan route instead [11]. That route fits ADI's pitch best, since its chain is built around stablecoins in the region [4]. Or the memorandum stays a memorandum.
In my view the evidence supports positioning for now: Visa has a partner and a study brief in a new region [1][14]. The counter-case rests on ADI's design. ADI has built its offer around policy compliance, interoperability and day-to-day operations [13]. If those claims hold up in testing, a pilot the size of the Lloyds one is a short step from this memorandum. The positioning reading fails once a bank in the region settles a Visa obligation in a named stablecoin on a stated date [3].
What to watch
- Which settlement asset the next Visa-ADI announcement names: an existing dollar coin such as the USDC used with Lloyds, or a stablecoin issued on ADI Chain.
- Whether Visa runs USDC settlement with Lloyds beyond the seven-day, $750,000 pilot.
- Whether the Shinhan work produces a Korea-focused stablecoin used in card payment settlement, the template a MENA version would most likely copy.