stable coins

Story: Opera MiniPay Launches Visa Card Giving 16 Million Stablecoin Users Real-World Spending Power

By Evie Vavasseur

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What the Card Actually Does. It's pretty straightforward in design. Users hold stablecoins inside MiniPay's wallet, and the…

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Why Visa, and Why Now. The Visa partnership isn't incidental. Visa's network reaches tens of millions of merchants…

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Emerging Markets at the Center. The clearest near-term beneficiaries are MiniPay's existing users in regions where local…

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Opera's MiniPay just gave its 16 million users something concrete: a Visa debit card that lets them spend stablecoins anywhere the Visa network runs. Not a pilot. Not a waitlist.

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The card connects MiniPay's stablecoin wallet directly to Visa's global payment rails, which basically means users can walk into a store, tap their card, and settle the…

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It's pretty straightforward in design. Users hold stablecoins inside MiniPay's wallet, and the Visa card draws on that balance when they make a purchase.

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The 16 million user figure is worth pausing on. That's not a small base. Opera built MiniPay as a lightweight mobile wallet embedded in its Opera Mini browser, which has deep…

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Stablecoin adoption across emerging markets has grown sharply in recent years, driven partly by dollar scarcity, partly by inflation in local currencies, and partly by the…

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The Visa partnership isn't incidental. Visa's network reaches tens of millions of merchants globally, and for a stablecoin product targeting everyday purchases rather than crypto…

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Read also: Bank of England Drops £20,000 Stablecoin Cap, Sets £40 Billion Ceiling

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It's also worth noting that Visa has been quietly building its stablecoin and digital currency infrastructure for a while now.

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And the timing makes sense. Stablecoins have moved from niche crypto tool to something that regulators, banks, and payment companies are all taking seriously.

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The clearest near-term beneficiaries are MiniPay's existing users in regions where local currencies are unreliable or where dollar access is restricted.

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Whether merchants adapt quickly is unclear. Visa acceptance is already widespread in urban centers across MiniPay's core markets, but rural penetration is spottier.

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Read also: Bitmine and Sharplink Back Ethlabs, a New Ethereum R&D Nonprofit

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