SAN FRANCISCO -- Visa (NYSE:V), a global leader in digital payments, announced it will join the Canton Network as the first major global payments company to serve as a Super Validator, to help extend privacy‑preserving blockchain infrastructure to banks and financial institutions around the world. Visa will be one of 40 Super Validators on Canton.

That move goes straight to a core challenge for financial institutions: the same transparency that gives blockchains their appeal can clash with privacy expectations financial institutions operate under. Canton Network, a blockchain built for regulated finance, has privacy built in from the beginning, so organizations can use shared infrastructure without exposing sensitive information.

As a Super Validator, Visa will help clients who choose to run and secure operations on the Canton Network, applying the same trusted and reliable standards it uses to operate critical payment systems today. Institutions can experiment with and scale stablecoin payments, settlement and treasury use cases without changing how they already manage risk, compliance and operations.

“Many banks see the lack of privacy as a dealbreaker for moving meaningful activity onchain,” said Rubail Birwadker, Global Head of Growth Products and Strategic Partnerships, Visa. “By operating as a Super Validator on Canton Network, we’re bringing Visa-grade trust, governance and operational rigor that define Visa’s global network to privacy‑preserving blockchain infrastructure, so regulated FIs can bring payments onchain without having to rethink how they operate.”

Today, Canton has gained wide adoption across capital markets, powering the issuance and trading of tokenized financial assets. With Visa joining, Canton will now connect capital markets with payments and bring onchain payments directly into the Canton ecosystem.