Visa has launched a new pilot program that allows banks and financial institutions to use stablecoins to pre-fund cross-border payments, aiming to drastically speed up and modernize international money movement.
Announced at the SIBOS 2025 conference, the Visa Direct stablecoin pilot enables select partners to use Circle’s USDC and EURC as pre-funded assets. This mechanism is designed to facilitate near-instant payouts, according to a Tuesday announcement.
The initiative addresses long-standing inefficiencies in global payments. “Cross-border payments have been stuck in outdated systems for far too long,” said Chris Newkirk, president of commercial and money movement solutions at Visa. The primary goal is to reduce the need for capital to be parked in advance across multiple international corridors and to modernize treasury operations.
Participants can now fund their Visa Direct accounts with stablecoins, which Visa treats as cash equivalents for initiating payouts. This stablecoin pre-funding is expected to unlock working capital, reduce exposure to currency volatility, and improve the predictability of treasury flows, especially during off-hours or weekends when traditional banking systems are inactive.
“Visa Direct’s new stablecoins integration lays the groundwork for money to move instantly across the world, giving businesses more choice in how they pay,” Newkirk added.
The pilot is specifically designed for banks, remittance services, and financial institutions seeking to optimize their liquidity. While the stablecoin market cap currently stands at over $307 billion, Visa has settled over $225 million in stablecoin volume to date—a figure that remains a small fraction of its $16 trillion in annual payments.
The pilot is currently limited to partners that meet Visa’s internal criteria, with a broader rollout planned for 2026.
Visa’s move comes amid a growing industry shift toward 24/7 real-time settlement. Just a day earlier, SWIFT announced it was collaborating with Ethereum developer Consensys and over 30 financial institutions to build a blockchain-based settlement platform aimed at enabling 24/7 cross-border payments, positioning both giants at the forefront of modernizing global finance.
The growing interest is also reflected in the crypto payments space, where stablecoin payments startup RedotPay recently reached unicorn status after raising $47 million in a strategic funding round.
