Stablecoins: How Visa’s Pilot Improves Global Payouts

Visa has unveiled a pilot programme allowing businesses to send payouts directly to recipients' stablecoin wallets, marking the latest expansion of its Visa Direct platform.

The announcement at Web Summit enables businesses using Visa Direct to fund payouts in fiat currency while recipients receive funds in USD-backed stablecoins such as USDC.

The innovation addresses longstanding challenges in global payouts, particularly for creators, freelancers and marketplace participants operating in markets with currency volatility or limited banking infrastructure.

Meeting demand for instant access

Research from Visa's 2025 Creator Economy Report reveals that speed of access drives digital payment adoption among content creators.

Chris Newkirk, President, Commercial & Money Movement Solutions at Visa says: "Launching stablecoin payouts is about enabling truly universal access to money in minutes - not days - for anyone, anywhere in the world.

"Whether it's a creator building a digital brand, a business reaching new global markets or a freelancer working across borders, everyone benefits from faster, more flexible money movement," he adds.

57% cited instant access as their primary motivation for choosing digital payment methods for content creation work.

Visa’s stablecoin strategy

The Web Summit pilot advances Visa's stablecoin strategy following its September announcement at SIBOS.

At that event, Visa Direct revealed a pilot programme enabling businesses to pre-fund payouts using stablecoins.

Together, these pilots aim to provide greater financial flexibility for Visa's clients and millions of consumers globally.

The latest initiative offers continuous convenience through near-instant payout access in stablecoins for consumers, creators and freelancers.

Addressing underbanked markets

The service targets underbanked regions where USD bank accounts remain unavailable, providing what Visa describes as borderless currency for the digital age.

Blockchain technology underpins the transparency element, with every transaction permanently logged to support auditability, compliance and receipt confirmation.

The pilot launches with select partners, with broader rollout planned for the second half of 2026 as client demand grows and regulatory frameworks advance.

Strategic investments in digital infrastructure

The announcement follows Visa's recent strategic investment in BVNK, a stablecoin infrastructure provider processing over US$12bn in annual transactions.

That investment came after BVNK's US$50m Series B funding round in December 2024.

"We're proud to support BVNK as they help accelerate global adoption of stablecoin payments." Rubail Birwadker, Head of Growth Products and Partnerships at Visa commented in May.

The stablecoin market recorded US$27tn in transaction volume globally across 1.25 billion transactions in 2024, according to Visa Onchain Analytics data.

BVNK's client base includes Ferrari and Rapyd, with the company providing infrastructure for sending, receiving, converting and storing both stablecoins and traditional fiat currencies through a unified platform.