Lightspark, the open global money company, announced a partnership with Visa, a global leader in digital payments, to enable stablecoin- and Bitcoin-backed Visa debit cards across more than 100+ countries. Through Lightspark's Grid platform, financial institutions, businesses and fintech developers will be offered Visa debit cards linked directly to the cardholder?s stablecoin balances, fiat accounts, or Bitcoin holdings?allowing consumers to spend their fiat or digital assets at any Visa-accepting merchant in the world. Lightspark enables clients to build consumer and business card programs at global scale.
Visa cards issued through Lightspark can be funded through: Stablecoins: USDC and others across major chains including Solana, Base, and Spark; Bitcoin via Spark, the Lightning Network or standard L1 funding; Fiat: USD, EUR, and other currencies. Cardholders can use their balances?wherever they're stored?to make everyday purchases at any Visa-accepting global merchant locations, seamlessly bridging on-chain accounts to everyday purchases. Lightspark's Grid already powers real-time fiat and stablecoin payouts to bank accounts across 65+ countries.
By working with Visa, the same platform that moves money globally will power full-featured card programs in those countries, with more to come?completing the loop from receive, store, and send to spend. For businesses launching their own stablecoin programs or branded wallets on Spark, this means cardholders can access their balances with a Visa card, anywhere in the world, from day one. The partnership will be live in the United States and Europe to start, with planned expansion to Asia Pacific, Africa, and the Middle East.
Lightspark will work with Visa to become a Principal Member, starting in Europe, deepening the integration between Lightspark's payment infrastructure and Visa's global network of 175M+ merchant locations. This will support financial institutions and fintechs using Lightspark's infrastructure to offer Visa cards to their customers, while Lightspark handles compliance, settlement, and program management.
