Wero v stablecoins: banks choose which network money runs on
Wero, Europe's payment service, reports more than 75m registered users, while Visa's stablecoin settlement has reached an annualised pace of more than $25bn.
Two camps are building new payment networks at once: Europe's banks with Wero, based on instant euro transfers, and Visa with digital dollar tokens on blockchains. For merchants and banks the choice of network is becoming a strategic decision.
What happened
The European Payments Initiative (EPI), backed by large European banks, said on 10 November that Wero had more than 75m registered users, up from 60m in September. Wero operates in Germany, France and Belgium, is replacing iDEAL in the Netherlands and has launched in Luxembourg. The EPI gives no figures for actual payments or volumes; registered does not mean active. Visa, for its part, reported with its quarterly results on 27 October an annualised stablecoin settlement run rate of more than $25bn, up from over $20bn in September and roughly ten times the level a year earlier. More than 225 card programmes with about 5m cards in over 50 countries are linked to stablecoins; Visa supports ten blockchains for this, with Monad added on 10 November. Britain's Lloyds Banking Group settled $750,000 in USDC during a seven-day trial.
What follows
For Europe the issue is control of infrastructure. Stablecoins are almost entirely dollar-denominated; the more settlement runs through them, the more payments depend on American issuers and their rules. Wero relies on euro accounts and instant transfers but needs merchants to move beyond person-to-person payments. Assessment: both systems are at an early stage; $25bn is small against Visa's card volumes, and Wero publishes no usage data. What matters is which option merchants offer first at the till and online.
What changes in practice
- Bank customers
- Using Wero through their own bank, they pay directly from a euro account in real time, without a card in between.
- Merchants
- They must decide which new payment methods to connect; each brings its own fees and dependencies.
- Banks
- Stablecoin settlement shortens routes and times but ties them to dollar tokens from private issuers.
What to watch
- First volume or transaction figures from Wero
- Wero's launch for online purchases at large German retailers
- European banks testing Visa settlement in stablecoins
Sources
- mobiFlip: Wero meldet mehr als 75 Millionen registrierte Nutzer, 10.11.2026
- mobiFlip: Wero erreicht 60 Millionen registrierte Nutzer
- crypto.news: Visa adds Monad as stablecoin settlement run rate tops $25B, 10.11.2026
- GlobeNewswire: Monad Joins Visa's Stablecoin Settlement Program, 10.11.2026