The Infrastructure Play
Visa is moving its stablecoin strategy from research to retail plumbing. The payments giant announced on Wednesday it has selected BVNK to power stablecoin infrastructure for Visa Direct, its $1.7 trillion money movement network. The partnership enables businesses to fund payouts using stablecoins and allows end-users to receive digital dollars directly into their wallets, bypassing traditional banking cutoff times.
The Mechanism: Digital Pre-Funding
This integration solves a specific liquidity friction: treasury management. Traditionally, businesses using Visa Direct must pre-fund accounts with fiat currency, a process often bottlenecked by weekend banking closures. Under the new pilot, corporate clients can fund these accounts using stablecoins (primarily USDC) via BVNK’s rails.
Stablecoins are an exciting opportunity for global payments, with enormous potential to reduce friction and expand access to faster, more efficient payment options – including during weekends, holidays and when banks are closed.
Mark Nelsen, Global Head of Product at Visa.
Institutional Context
This is not a cold start for the two firms. Visa Ventures invested in BVNK in May 2025, signaling long-term intent to internalize crypto-native settlement rails. BVNK itself is no small operator, reporting $30 billion in annualized stablecoin payment volume, a figure that suggests significant traction in the B2B cross-border sector. For Visa, the move represents a concrete step toward hybridizing its network, allowing it to compete with crypto-native payment processors that offer instant, 24/7 finality.
The rollout targets “approved markets” initially, likely focusing on jurisdictions with clear stablecoin regulatory frameworks before a wider global expansion.
