Payments giant Visa has moved its stablecoin capabilities on the Visa Direct platform from pilot programs into commercial production, enabling eligible businesses to prefund cross-border payouts with USDC in near real time.
The announcement names payments infrastructure provider Inyo Global as the first enabler of the service.
Speaking on the launch, Global Head of Visa Direct Vira Platonova said,
Register for the next Tekedia Mini-MBA.
Register for Tekedia AI in Business Masterclass.
Join Tekedia Capital Syndicate and co-invest in great global startups.
“The next chapter for stablecoins is adoption. Over the last several years, we’ve worked with several partners and clients to explore how these technologies can improve money movement. We’re now seeing those efforts translate into live implementations, helping businesses access more flexible and efficient ways to fund and move money globally through Visa Direct, starting with Inyo Global as our first enabler.”
Also commenting, Robson Dantas, Chief Product and Technology Officer and co-founder at Inyo Global said,
“Innovation in money movement is ultimately about creating a better experience for customers, and that’s exactly our focus at Inyo. By integrating Visa Direct’s stablecoin-enabled prefunding into the Inyo platform, we’re giving the money transmitters, fintechs and payment companies we serve a new way to fund their payouts, one that is available around the clock and runs through the same Inyo APIs they already use.”
The implementation builds on Visa’s broader efforts to connect traditional payment infrastructure with blockchain-enabled technologies. By offering stablecoin funding and moving money, Visa is helping clients explore new ways to improve efficiency while maintaining the reliability, security, and scale of Visa’s global network.
Under the new offering, businesses served by Inyo including money transmitters, fintechs, banks, and payment companies can supply USDC to fund payouts through Visa Direct around the clock rather than relying solely on traditional banking funding windows.
Inyo has integrated the capability into its existing platform, which already handles customer onboarding, fraud and compliance management, payment acceptance, and domestic and international payouts across more than 180 countries.
Visa first introduced stablecoin prefunding and payout pilots through Visa Direct in 2025. Those tests explored how digital dollars could improve cross-border funding, liquidity management, and global money movement.
The current rollout marks the transition of the prefunding feature into everyday commercial operations, beginning with Inyo Global. Availability remains subject to eligibility and geographic requirements.
The service focuses on the funding side of the transaction. Businesses prefund with USDC, while recipients continue to receive funds through existing Visa Direct rails, typically in local currency.
This approach aims to give payment providers greater flexibility in managing liquidity, especially outside standard banking hours or across time zones. It does not require recipients to hold or accept stablecoins directly.
The launch builds on Visa’s wider stablecoin strategy, which has included earlier pilots for direct stablecoin payouts to wallets, USDC settlement options for issuers and acquirers, and other infrastructure initiatives.
By embedding regulated stablecoins like USDC—issued by Circle—into a major payments network, Visa is positioning digital dollars as practical tools for everyday commercial money movement rather than experimental technology.
For businesses that regularly send cross-border payments, the ability to prefund with a dollar-pegged stablecoin in near real time offers potential advantages in speed, operational continuity, and capital efficiency.
Traditional funding often depends on banking cut-off times and settlement cycles that can stretch across days. Stablecoin prefunding provides an alternative rail that operates continuously, subject to the eligibility rules of the Visa and Inyo platforms.
As the first production deployment, the Inyo partnership serves as a test of real-world demand and operational performance.
Visa has indicated that additional enablers and expanded availability may follow as the service matures and regulatory frameworks continue to develop. For now, the focus remains on delivering a reliable, compliant option that fits within existing payment workflows.
The move underscores growing institutional interest in stablecoins as settlement and funding infrastructure. With Visa Direct already enabling payouts to a vast global network, the addition of USDC prefunding represents a concrete step toward blending traditional finance rails with blockchain-based assets in production environments.