Cuy Sheffield, Visa Head of Crypto

Crypto for everything

Last week, we had a chance to learn how stablecoins are going to transform finance and relationships between consumers and merchants from the head of crypto of the biggest fintech in the world - Visa. It was the second time we hosted Cuy for Icons.

Here are a few insights from the dinner:

1. Stablecoins are becoming a new form of money.
Stablecoins are no longer a niche crypto instrument. They are becoming embedded in the global financial system as programmable, internet-native money. Visa’s role is not to displace banks, but to act as connective tissue between banks, PSPs, and new on-chain payment rails.

2. Stablecoins are additive to Visa’s business, not disruptive.
Rather than cannibalizing card networks, stablecoins expand Visa’s surface area. They unlock new revenue opportunities in cross-border settlement, treasury management, and B2B payments where instant finality, lower costs, and 24/7 availability matter more than interchange economics.

3. PSP → merchant settlement in stablecoins will scale by orders of magnitude.
Merchant settlement in stablecoins is still early, but the direction is clear. Stablecoins offer faster settlement, fewer intermediaries, improved liquidity control, and global reach without correspondent banking friction. Once merchants experience this, it becomes hard to go back.

4. Crypto cards are early and will scale 100x.
Crypto cards today are where cards themselves once were: functional but underdeveloped. This is one of the few categories where startups can launch globally from day one, onboard users across geographies instantly, and compete with banks on speed, UX, and programmability.

5. Privacy is one of the biggest unsolved problems in crypto payments.
Privacy is not a “nice to have.” It is a prerequisite for enterprise and merchant adoption. Multiple models are emerging: on-chain privacy, off-chain abstraction, selective disclosure, and ZK-based approaches. Which architecture wins is still an open question, but some form of privacy must exist.

6. Banks adopting stablecoins will benefit long-term.
Bank resistance to stablecoins is softening. Allowing customers to instantly deposit stablecoins and use them for spending or transfers is low-hanging fruit. Over time, stablecoins strengthen banks’ product offerings rather than weakening them.

7. On-chain credit and programmable loans are a massive upcoming market.
Fully on-chain credit, programmable lending, and stablecoin-based financial strategies are poised to scale significantly. Every major bank will need a coherent stablecoin and on-chain strategy.

8. The “vibe-coding” market is real and accelerating.
The cost of building financial products is collapsing. AI-assisted development enables many more builders to ship wallets, payments, and settlement products faster than incumbents can respond.
Crypto retains defensibility today due to audits and the high cost of mistakes, but tooling will continue to close the gap.

9. Agentic commerce will shift from speculation to utility in 2026.
In 2025, protocols like x402 saw ~95% of volume tied to memecoins. Cuy expects that in 2026, this changes. Wallets will act as universal API keys, enabling pay-per-use access to tools inside agentic IDEs. He expects major tech companies to deploy an x402 server and push agentic commerce into real-world use.