Visa has announced a stablecoin prefunding pilot program for its Visa Direct platform, aiming to accelerate and enhance cross-border payments for businesses globally. The initiative, revealed at SIBOS 2025, seeks to provide a new method for moving money internationally, improve liquidity management, and modernize treasury operations for the digital economy.
Historically, global money transfers have relied on systems that can be slow, costly, and require capital to be locked up in advance. This pilot program will test stablecoins as an alternative funding source for Visa Direct, Visa’s real-time payments platform, with the objective of reducing friction, providing faster access to liquidity, and offering financial institutions greater flexibility in managing global payouts.
Chris Newkirk, President, Commercial & Money Movement Solutions at Visa, stated, “Cross-border payments have been stuck in outdated systems for far too long. 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.”
The stablecoin prefunding model offers several benefits. It allows businesses to pre-fund Visa Direct with stablecoins rather than large fiat balances, keeping capital more readily available while ensuring payouts are covered. This can modernize treasury operations by enabling money movement in minutes instead of days, leading to more dynamic and responsive liquidity management. Furthermore, stablecoins provide a consistent settlement layer, which can reduce exposure to local currency volatility and stabilize treasury operations.
In this pilot, businesses will pre-fund Visa Direct using stablecoins. Visa will then treat these stablecoins as available funds, which can be used to cover payouts. Recipients will still receive payments in their local currency. The pilot is designed for banks, remitters, and financial institutions requiring more efficient liquidity management for high-volume cross-border payouts.
Visa is currently collaborating with select partners who meet the pilot criteria, with plans to expand the program in 2026. Limited availability is projected by April 2026. This initiative is part of Visa’s broader commitment to developing a faster, more flexible, and digitally-focused future for money movement, combining its global network with blockchain’s programmability.
