Visa has launched a pilot programme that lets businesses use stablecoin to fund international payments, moving away from the traditional requirement of pre-depositing cash in local bank accounts.
The decision comes on the back of the recently passed Genius Act in the United States, which for the first time sets out a regulatory framework for stablecoin issuers. By mandating reserve backing, licensing, audits, and transparency standards, the law has given financial institutions confidence to engage with digital tokens once seen as too risky.
Mark Nelsen, head of Product for Visa’s commercial and money movement solutions, said: “The Genius Act changed everything. It made everything so much more legitimate. Before that regulatory clarity, all the big institutions were sort of on the fence.”
With the pilot, banks, remittance firms, and fintechs can use stablecoins such as USDC or PYUSD to pre-fund accounts. This removes the need to lock up liquidity across multiple currencies, accelerates settlement times, and cuts costs associated with foreign exchange. For companies running global operations, that difference could be substantial.
Stablecoins, pegged to assets like the U.S. dollar or Treasuries, are increasingly viewed as more than speculative crypto tokens. Their ability to act as “financial plumbing” is forcing incumbents to adapt. Some see this as a threat.
Matthew Tuttle, CEO of Tuttle Capital Management, warned: “Stablecoins are moving from crypto gimmick to financial plumbing. It’s one of the reasons we launched an inverse regional bank exchange-traded fund as I think the regionals are in trouble.”
In testing stablecoin payment, Visa appears to be choosing integration over competition. Rather than competing with the technology, the company wants to embed it into its infrastructure. Nelsen added: “The amount of software and technology that’s been deployed globally for payments is hard to recreate. So it seems more likely to just incorporate stablecoin technology into existing flows.”
Other payment giants including PayPal, Stripe, and Mastercard are also exploring stablecoin use for cross-border commerce and business-to-business payments. With regulation now in place, what once looked like an experiment is quickly becoming mainstream financial infrastructure.
The global payments industry is entering uncharted territory. Stablecoins, once dismissed as a crypto fad, are now being tested by the biggest names in finance.
