Visa Teams Up with Aquanow to Scale Stablecoin Settlements Across CEMEA
Visa said it has partnered with Aquanow to scale stablecoin settlement capabilities across the CEMEA region, combining Visa’s payments network and market access with Aquanow’s crypto settlement infrastructure. The collaboration targets lower cross-border costs, faster finality and fewer reconciliation headaches for banks and corporates that move value across Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
The deal underscores growing interest from legacy payment firms in using tokenized fiat and stablecoins as settlement rails. For merchants and remittance corridors in CEMEA, the partnership could mean quicker liquidity flows and reduced dependence on correspondent banking. Regulators and banks will still need to work through custody, compliance and FX issues, but the arrangement is a tangible step toward broader institutional use of on-chain settlements in the region.