Behind Dollar Cards: How Rain and Visa Are Rebuilding Global Payment Settlement

Rain CEO and co-founder Farooq Malik joined Visa’s Head of Crypto, Cuy Sheffield, on StableMinded to talk shop about how stablecoins are transforming payments infrastructure and what that means for enterprises, fintechs, and global economies.

‍

You can listen to the full episode here.

‍

From Rain’s early bet on stablecoin-backed corporate cards to Visa’s bold move toward blockchain-based settlement, the conversation explored how these two companies are teaming up to modernize money movement on a global scale. Below are the top five takeaways from their conversation:

‍

1. Stablecoins Are Quietly Changing the Game

While crypto headlines come and go, stablecoins are quietly doing the real work—enabling faster, more reliable financial flows across borders. For Rain’s customers, stablecoins are operational currency used for payroll, cloud services, and day-to-day purchases.

The world needs payment rails that operate at internet speed. And that’s exactly what Rain is building.

‍

2. Rain + Visa = 24/7 Settlement Infrastructure

Rain became the first issuer to settle Visa transactions using stablecoins every day of the week. This unlocks near-instant liquidity, reduces working capital constraints, and eliminates legacy bottlenecks like wire cutoffs and bank holidays.

Cuy from Visa describes this as an evolution from a two-dimensional treasury system to a four-dimensional model, where the key variables include currency, format (fiat or stablecoin), delivery method (Fedwire or blockchain), and the blockchain network itself. Rain’s infrastructure makes this complexity invisible to the user while powering faster, always-on settlement.

‍

3. Built Stablecoin-First, with Visa at the Core

Rain didn’t retrofit stablecoins into a legacy system—it was built from the ground up as a stablecoin-native platform. Every Rain customer settles in stablecoins, and Rain itself settles with Visa the same way.

This deep integration is what makes the Rain—Visa model unique. Rain can adapt quickly to support new tokens and chains while aligning with Visa’s rigorous requirements for security, scale, and compliance. The result is a globally connected payments stack that works out of the box for new markets and use cases.

‍

4. Turning “Dollar Cards” into Daily Spend

Thanks to this partnership, stablecoin-powered cards are becoming everyday financial tools, especially in emerging markets. Users call them “dollar cards” and use them for everything from groceries to business expenses, with no need to understand the tech behind it.

Rain is also partnered with merchant acquirers, like Nuvei, to support merchant payouts in stablecoins across LATAM. These merchants receive a Rain-powered wallet with a built-in Visa card, so they can spend against those stablecoin balances instantly, without ever having to off-ramp to fiat. This means money flows from consumer to merchant and back again, all within the Visa network and powered by stablecoin settlement.

‍

5. Expanding Access to the Modern Financial Stack

Visa’s priority now is scaling this model across more markets. Rain’s role is to make that expansion possible through flexible APIs, onchain infrastructure, and compliance-ready solutions.

This collaboration is a clear example of how legacy payment leaders and next-gen platforms can come together to redefine what’s possible. For users, that means faster payments, broader access, and fewer fees. For enterprises, neobanks, platforms, and developers, it means global reach without global rebuilds.