About 60% to 70% of online transactions on the Visa network happen with tokens, said Mehret Habteab, senior vice-president of product and solutions for Europe at Visa.
In the Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa (CEMEA) region, the company revealed it has seen tokenised transactions grow from 26% in 2023, to 70% in 2026.
Habteab was among the executives at the Visa Payments Forum in Paris, where the digital payments firm outlined a series of its artificial intelligence (AI), stablecoin and token capabilities.
The forum also provided detail on how AI and stablecoins are altering the front-end and back-end of commerce and money movement.
According to Habteab, tokens replace the sensitive card details in a payment with a secure digital version.
Visa introduced tokens in 2014 to secure digital payments. However, the technology and the outcomes have progressed, she explained.
As a result, token utilisation is on a “clear” path towards 100%, she stated. “Tokens are the reason you can tap with your phone to hop onto the metro, pay with your favourite wallet online, and they’re very popular.
“It’s the results that matter; seamless and engaged experiences for consumers, more transactions going through – 5% more when they’re tokenised – and 35% less fraudulent transactions.
“This technology is going to be super-important for this next wave of commerce. It’s going to be embedded from the start and we’re going to work on making tokens ready for what’s to come.”
Habteab elaborated that the next generation of Visa tokens will start being portable to different shopping experiences. “A consumer, who’s established a trusted relationship with a merchant, all the confidence built up with that merchant will carry forward into these new experiences.
“For merchants and businesses that are looking to innovate and bring more experiences to their users, it means the trusted base of consumers they have scales immediately. The virtuous circle continues for issuers too. The consumer’s bank will be able to see the same identity that the consumer has established with their merchant, and they get context on how the transaction is happening and who initiated it.”
Tokenisation is one of the key drivers of e-commerce growth in the CEMEA region, said the digital payments firm.
“Tokens already carry a highly-secure dataset purpose-built for digital payments. As commerce extends to new channels and agents, Visa is enriching the data to provide more details on the transaction type, where the token is being used and who is making the payment.
“A second key advancement is a token assurance signal. Token use is evaluated throughout its lifecycle – based on provisioning and behavioural history – to generate a signal of trust behind each transaction.
“Together, these advancements help strengthen the role of tokens as a foundation for trusted digital and AI-driven commerce, giving clients richer context and stronger assurance as transactions become more automated, embedded and intelligent.”
Back-end money movement
Visa also shared progress in terms of modernising settlement and value transfer through stablecoins and blockchain-based infrastructure.
With tokenised deposits, the company will build the technology layer that can allow banks to turn deposits into programmable, always-on digital money. This will give banks a way to match the speed and flexibility of stablecoins while keeping funds on the balance sheet.
Visa is also expanding stablecoin settlement pilots across multiple regions, blockchains and currencies.
According to Visa, it has moved billions of dollars in stablecoins across VisaNet, with an annualised run rate of $7 billion as of March 2026.
The company is also working to extend seven-day settlement to include acquirers, increasing flexibility and frequency across the entire ecosystem. “Since launch of stablecoins settlement capabilities a year ago in CEMEA, settlement volumes have increased nearly 60 times.
“To enable consumers and businesses to spend stablecoin balances anywhere Visa is accepted, Visa is expanding stablecoin-linked card programmes,” it states, adding that it expects adoption to accelerate.
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