Visa has partnered with UK-based stablecoin infrastructure provider BVNK to pilot cross-border payment products built on stablecoins. Under the initial setup, selected business clients can pre-fund outbound payments in stablecoins and send digital US dollars directly to recipient wallets in specific markets.
Pilot starts with a limited group of Visa Direct clients
The program is currently being tested with a small number of Visa Direct enterprise customers in markets where demand is already strong. Visa and BVNK said the pilots are expected to widen over time, with additional corridors, currencies, stablecoins, and customer segments planned if regulatory approval is secured. For now, the rollout remains limited and focused on early enterprise use cases.
Part of Visa’s broader stablecoin payments push
The BVNK deal adds to Visa’s existing work with stablecoins. The company had already tested on-chain settlement using USDC on blockchain networks including Ethereum and Solana. The new partnership also follows Visa Ventures’ investment in BVNK in May 2025, linking the pilot to Visa’s wider effort to bring tokenized dollars into its payment infrastructure.
BVNK has also drawn backing from other major financial investors. The report notes that Citi Ventures invested in BVNK in October 2025, a sign that institutional interest in stablecoin infrastructure is building across the payments sector.
Stablecoin volumes rise as payment firms look beyond bank hours
Visa executives described the move as part of a broader modernization effort in global payments, with one practical goal: processing transactions outside traditional banking hours. In cross-border payments, that can reduce delays and make settlement more flexible. Visa’s position is that stablecoins can cut friction and expand access to faster payment rails.
According to estimates cited from the International Monetary Fund, annual stablecoin transaction volume has reached $3 trillion to $4 trillion. That scale has pushed stablecoins beyond a niche crypto use case and into mainstream payments discussions. Regulatory questions remain, but the Visa-BVNK pilot shows that stablecoins are increasingly being treated as part of future payment infrastructure.
The report also notes that regulators, including the European Central Bank, are tracking the growth of stablecoins closely. For Visa, the partnership with BVNK is both a product test and a step toward building payment capabilities while regulatory standards are still taking shape.