Paying for a coffee or an online order with a crypto or stablecoin balance, straight from the wallet app you already use, without first going through a sale or a transfer: that is what Mesh and Visa are promising. According to Fintechnews Switzerland, the two companies have entered into a partnership to make it possible to spend these balances wherever Visa is accepted. This is an announced partnership, not a launched service: the go-live date, the compatible devices and the participating platforms have not yet been disclosed.

A Visa network of more than 175 million points of sale

What is at stake starts with the size of the network. According to Fintechnews Switzerland, Visa's network covers more than 175 million merchant points of sale, in more than 200 countries and territories. According to the same source, Visa processed $14.2 trillion in payment volume in its 2025 fiscal year. Once the service launches, users could pay both in stores and online from their existing wallet.

How the conversion works at the moment of payment

The mechanism described is as follows. For each participating wallet or platform, Mesh creates a Visa payment credential in the background. The consumer can then pay at a contactless terminal or complete an online purchase, without having to sell, transfer or preload their funds beforehand.

It is Mesh that decides how each transaction is funded and converted, across crypto, stablecoin and fiat balances. The company also acts as program manager: it handles account opening and identity checks (KYC). For a platform, the stated benefit is being able to offer Visa payments through a single integration, rather than setting up its own card program.

“Mesh handles the funding and the conversion, so that a balance becomes purchasing power at the moment of payment, with nothing to move for the user and nothing to change for the merchant,” said Bam Azizi, CEO and co-founder of Mesh. On Visa's side, Rubail Birwadker, global head of growth, believes that “consumers increasingly expect to use their money however and wherever they want.”

What this would change for a merchant or a user in Switzerland

For the merchant, the announcement is simple: they receive a standard payment and need no new hardware. A Swiss store that already accepts contactless Visa would therefore, on paper, have nothing to install and no crypto to collect. The conversion would take place upstream, at Mesh.

For the user, the change would concern the act itself: converting a crypto or stablecoin balance would happen at the time of purchase, rather than in advance. But several practical questions remain unanswered in the announcement. No participating platform is named, whether Swiss or foreign, and nothing indicates when or in which countries the service will be available. The source does not specify the fees or the conversion rates applied either, two factors that will weigh on the real appeal of paying in crypto day to day.

Visa is not the only big name in payments looking at stablecoins: we have already discussed the role of stablecoins in payments at Mastercard and Stripe. For Visa and Mesh, the next expected step is simple: a timeline and a first list of wallets.

Sources