Visa and Brale have launched a proof-of-concept to test SBC, a U.S. dollar-backed token issued by Brale, for institutional settlement on the Canton Network. The trial is aimed at regulated payment and financial flows rather than retail payments, with the companies examining whether privacy-enabled blockchain infrastructure can support faster, programmable settlement without broadly exposing sensitive transaction data across a shared network.
Institutional settlement needs privacy as well as speed
Visa said the project will help evaluate SBC as another stablecoin option for institutional settlement use cases. With native support on Canton, the firms plan to test the token in payment flows that require programmability, privacy controls, and operational reliability. Those requirements differ sharply from public crypto transfers. Banks, payment companies, asset managers, and corporate treasury teams may need common settlement rails, but they also need tight control over visibility into counterparties, transaction amounts, liquidity movements, and commercial relationships.
That is where Canton becomes relevant. The network is built around privacy-enabled blockchain infrastructure, making it suitable for tests where institutions want the automation of onchain settlement without full public transaction exposure. In the release, Visa Head of Crypto Cuy Sheffield said the company is exploring how SBC on Canton can support institutional settlement use cases that need both programmability and privacy controls, while also assessing what is required to bring those capabilities into production environments.
Part of a broader Visa stablecoin buildout
Visa has been expanding its stablecoin settlement work since first enabling stablecoin settlement in 2021. The company said its stablecoin settlement pilot reached a $7 billion annualized run rate as of April, up 50% from the prior quarter. The pilot now spans nine blockchains: Arc, Base, Canton, Polygon, Tempo, Avalanche, Ethereum, Solana, and Stellar.
The multi-chain approach shows Visa is not tying its strategy to a single network. It is testing how different blockchain environments can support different settlement and payment use cases. Adding SBC introduces a token designed to operate inside a network focused on privacy-sensitive financial activity. For Visa, the question is not just whether stablecoins can move money faster, but whether they can function inside regulated infrastructure where data access, compliance standards, and reliability matter at every step.
Stablecoin relevance is shifting toward institutional fit
The wider market for dollar-pegged stablecoins is approaching $300 billion in total supply. USDT accounts for about $188 billion, while USDC stands near $76 billion. Liquidity remains concentrated among a small number of issuers. That makes institutional use cases, network support, and trusted settlement partners especially important for smaller tokens such as SBC.
A Visa-backed proof-of-concept does not guarantee adoption, but it gives SBC a clearer place in the institutional settlement discussion. For Brale, the collaboration opens a route into payment infrastructure rather than competing mainly on exchange liquidity or retail activity. For Canton, it adds another institutional finance use case. The broader signal is that stablecoins are increasingly being assessed as settlement technology that could sit behind payment flows, treasury operations, and institutional transfer networks, with liquidity, issuer controls, privacy features, network compatibility, and compliance design shaping which tokens are considered suitable.