Visa has selected UK-based stablecoin infrastructure provider BVNK to support new Visa Direct pilot programs, enabling certain business customers to pre-fund cross-border payouts using stablecoins and send digital US dollars directly to recipients’ wallets in select markets.
Announced Wednesday, the partnership builds on Visa’s earlier stablecoin initiatives, including onchain settlement trials using USDC on blockchains such as Ethereum and Solana.
The collaboration follows Visa Ventures’ strategic investment in BVNK in May 2025, as major card networks move to integrate tokenized dollars into their treasury and payout systems. Citi Ventures also invested in BVNK in October 2025, reflecting broader interest from traditional finance in stablecoin infrastructure.
Visa executives described the initiative as part of an ongoing effort to modernize global payments, highlighting stablecoins as a promising tool for moving money beyond traditional bank operating hours.
A BVNK spokesperson told Cointelegraph that the company has “a great relationship with Visa,” but emphasized that the partnership resulted from a “competitive tender,” demonstrating that BVNK is “best in class and winning the race in this highly competitive space.” The spokesperson added that Visa and BVNK share “a common understanding of the enormous potential of stablecoins to reduce friction and expand access to faster, more efficient payment options.”
Coinbase $2 billion deal collapse
The agreement marks a swift return to prominence for BVNK after it and Coinbase mutually walked away from a proposed $2 billion acquisition in November last year following the completion of due diligence. At the time, the deal was seen as a way for Coinbase to expand stablecoin-related revenue and better compete with Wall Street firms and major payments players such as Western Union, MoneyGram and SWIFT, all of which have been accelerating their own stablecoin strategies.
The BVNK spokesperson said the company is currently running pilot programs with a “limited set of Visa Direct enterprise clients in high-demand markets,” adding that the broader roadmap includes expansion into additional corridors, currencies, stablecoins and customer segments, subject to regulatory approval and customer demand.
Stablecoins’ growing footprint
Stablecoins have become one of the largest segments in crypto, with global market capitalization at around $280 billion as of late 2025, according to the European Central Bank’s latest Financial Stability Review.
The International Monetary Fund estimates that annual global stablecoin transaction volumes have already reached between $3 trillion and $4 trillion, underscoring their expanding role in cross-border payments and trading. Meanwhile, a joint report from onchain analytics platforms Artemis and Dune found that the number of active stablecoin wallets rose by more than 50% between February 2024 and February 2025.
Regulation, CLARITY Act and stablecoin rewards
BVNK’s new role with Visa comes amid a shifting regulatory landscape, as authorities including the ECB caution that rapid growth in stablecoin usage could pose spillover risks to bank funding, even as stablecoins promise faster, lower-friction global payments and remittances.
In the US, lawmakers continue to debate the CLARITY Act and related market structure legislation, with recent draft provisions on stablecoin rewards shaping how far regulated firms such as Visa and BVNK may go in offering yield or incentive features alongside payment-focused stablecoin products.
The BVNK spokesperson said stablecoin payouts are “restricted to compliant wallets and counterparties” and are “designed to align with evolving regulatory frameworks,” including the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation, as well as regulatory regimes in the UK and the US.
