On-chain lending markets reached a new milestone of $18.7 billion on November 7th, according to Visa’s latest projections. The payments giant forecasts this burgeoning market could reach an astonishing $40 trillion in the coming years. This projection is based on the belief that stablecoins serve as essential infrastructure for programmable credit markets built upon traditional finance. Visa emphasizes the potential of stablecoins as settlement rails rather than just payment tools, highlighting how lenders deposit USDC or USDT into smart contract pools to fund loans. Borrowers post collateral – crypto or tokenized real-world assets (RWA) – through these platforms.