Bitcoin payments infrastructure firm Lightspark said on Wednesday it has partnered with Visa to enable stablecoin and Bitcoin-backed debit cards across more than 100 countries, starting in the US and Europe.
The cards will be issued through Lightspark’s Grid platform, which already powers fiat and stablecoin payouts to bank accounts in 65+ countries. The target customers are financial institutions, businesses and fintech developers, not individual consumers directly.
Funding sources
Cards issued through Grid can be linked to USDC on Solana, Base and Spark, Bitcoin holdings via Spark, the Lightning Network or standard L1 funding, and fiat accounts in USD, EUR and other currencies.
Lightspark is turning onchain balances into spendable Visa card balances through a single integration. The company will handle compliance, settlement and program management on behalf of platforms using the infrastructure.
Lightspark said it will work with Visa to become a Principal Member starting in Europe, which would give it deeper control over card program infrastructure in that region.
The Visa deal lands days after Lightspark launched Grid Global Accounts, an enterprise banking product for platforms that can offer branded dollar accounts, stablecoin conversion and instant foreign-exchange services. Adding card issuance closes a loop from receive, store and send to spend.
Former PayPal executive David Marcus, who founded Lightspark in 2022, has raised $175 million from investors including Andreessen Horowitz and Paradigm. Forbes reported that the company now handles “billions” in payment volume for firms including Tether, Nubank and SoFi.
“Visa is committed to meeting businesses where they operate, and increasingly, that’s onchain,” said Dan Roesbery, Vice President of Global Onchain Partnerships & GTM at Visa.
