Visa Integrates Onchain Lending Into Stablecoin Cards as Strategy Repurchases $176M STRC

Visa is bridging traditional payment infrastructure with blockchain-based credit, announcing Tuesday that lenders can now combine VisaNet settlement records with onchain transaction data to finance payment obligations for businesses behind its stablecoin-linked card programs. The move effectively opens a new source of working capital for card issuers and payment companies, allowing them to evaluate borrowers using blockchain-native data rather than relying solely on traditional financing channels. Visa cited Credit Coop as an early example, noting the blockchain credit protocol has financed more than $2.5 billion in cumulative settlement volume since 2023 across 3,000-plus borrowing events and 9,000 repayments. The rollout comes as stablecoin activity on Visa's network accelerates, with more than 160 stablecoin-linked card programs now supported, payment volume up nearly 200% year-over-year, and stablecoin settlement volume surpassing a $20 billion annualized run rate, more than 15 times its level a year earlier. Adjusted stablecoin transaction volume hit a record $1.79 trillion in June.

Michael Saylor's Strategy, the largest corporate Bitcoin treasury, broke its weekly acquisition streak, opting instead to repurchase 1.8 million shares of its STRC preferred stock for an aggregate $176.3 million between Aug. 31 and Sept. 7. According to a Tuesday filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the company also doubled the size of its Digital Credit Securities Repurchase Program to $2 billion, signaling a capital-allocation pivot toward share-price support. With no new Bitcoin added, Strategy's holdings remain at 845,050 BTC, acquired for a total of $63.6 billion at an average price of $75,412 per coin. The move comes just one week after the firm posted its first BTC purchase since mid-June, a $370 million buy, while STRC traded largely flat in premarket activity at $97.70.

In a separate security development, white-hat hackers returned 3,400 BTC, worth roughly $266 million, to Liquid's federation wallet following a $320 million withdrawal that had raised alarms across the industry. The return underscores the increasingly active role ethical security researchers play in safeguarding major crypto treasuries, while also highlighting the persistent vulnerabilities in custodial and federation-based wallet architectures. The incident is now under review by Liquid's operators and external security partners as the exchange works to reconcile the returned funds and strengthen its defenses.