Visa Direct to Pilot Stablecoin-Enabled Cross-Border Payments

Visa plans a stablecoin-enabled pilot within Visa Direct to shorten cross-border settlement times and curb currency conversion costs by enabling direct USDC settlements.

Rich by Coin

2026-01-06

Global payments technology company Visa is set to pilot a stablecoin-enabled settlement system within its Visa Direct remittance service as early as the first half of this year. Following December’s rollout of a USD Coin (USDC) settlement framework in the United States that allows some financial institutions to make and settle payments to Visa in USDC, Visa is expanding its blockchain-based settlement infrastructure to the global remittance network. On the 6th, financial industry sources and foreign press said Visa is conducting preliminary tests with select partners to launch a Visa Direct-based stablecoin settlement pilot. Visa Direct is a large-scale payments network connecting about 3.5 billion bank accounts, 4 billion cards, and 3.5 billion digital wallets.

The core of Visa’s move is liquidity efficiency. Under existing international payment systems, transfers typically take 2-3 days due to time zone differences and banking days, with longer waits on holidays. In particular, multinational companies paying overseas partners and workers on weekends or holidays have to preload local currency into local bank accounts to lock liquidity. Through this pilot, companies may preload stablecoins into Visa Direct, or send in fiat while the recipient directly receives USDC or other dollar stablecoins in a digital wallet. This could benefit digital creators, gig workers, and freelancers through quicker, borderless settlements.

The service is being designed around stablecoin wallets that meet KYC/AML requirements. KB Securities’ Kim Ji-won noted that the pilot leverages the 24/7 operation of blockchain to reduce collateral deposits and settlement waits, giving an example of Uber paying drivers worldwide with minimal currency conversion and near-real-time settlement. Visa’s chosen partner is Circle’s USDC issued on the Solana blockchain. Visa also aims to broaden integration with Circle’s enterprise blockchain infrastructure Arc, to expand stablecoin settlement and remittance services for corporate and financial institutions.