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Visa has launched the Visa Tokenised Asset Platform (VTAP), a platform designed to enable financial institutions to mint, burn, and transfer fiat-backed tokens, such as tokenized deposits and stablecoins, while experimenting with various use cases. VTAP aims to help banks explore blockchain technology and tokenization to enhance their digital asset offerings.
Currently available in a testing environment, Visa plans to support live programs starting next year, once participating banks are prepared to roll out their services to end customers. The platform offers programmability through smart contracts, allowing banks to automate complex financial processes. For instance, using VTAP, a bank could issue tokenized lines of credit and automate payments based on predefined contract terms.
Visa is also focusing on ensuring interoperability between different blockchains. With a single API connection to VTAP, banks will be able to facilitate multiple use cases, enabling interactions with clients and partners across both permissioned and public blockchains.
Vanessa Colella, Visa’s Global Head of Innovation and Digital Partnerships, emphasized the company’s enthusiasm for leveraging its tokenization experience to help banks adopt blockchain technology. She stated: “We’re excited to leverage our experience with tokenization to help banks integrate blockchain technologies into their operations.”
Spanish bank BBVA is already testing VTAP in a sandbox environment, issuing, transferring, and redeeming a bank token on a testnet blockchain. The bank is also testing interactions between tokens and smart contracts. BBVA aims to launch a live pilot with select customers in 2025 on the public Ethereum blockchain.
Francisco Maroto, Head of Blockchain and Digital Assets at BBVA, highlighted the importance of this collaboration, stating: “This collaboration marks a significant milestone in our exploration of the potential of blockchain technology and will ultimately help enable us to broaden our banking services and expand the market with new financial solutions.”
By facilitating the use of fiat-backed tokens and blockchain technology, Visa’s VTAP platform is expected to empower banks to develop more efficient and innovative financial services, driving the future of digital banking.
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