Visa Direct moves USDC prefunding into commercial production, a year after pilot

Visa has moved a feature that lets businesses prefund payouts on its Visa Direct cross-border payments service with the USDC stablecoin from pilot into commercial production. In a press release issued in San Francisco on Oct. 15, Visa said payments infrastructure company Inyo Global is the first provider to offer the capability commercially.

Prefunding was limited to set funding windows

Remittance companies and fintechs that send money abroad through Visa Direct must first deposit the funds they plan to pay out into an account with Visa, a step known as prefunding. Until now, they could top up only during traditional funding windows, which meant keeping large fiat balances parked in advance.

Visa said eligible businesses can now prefund in near real time with USDC through Inyo Global's platform, with availability subject to eligibility and region. Inyo Global co-founder and Chief Product and Technology Officer Robson Dantas said clients fund through the same Inyo APIs they already use, and that the option is available "around the clock." What changes is how remittance firms fund Visa.

"The next chapter for stablecoins is adoption."

Vira Platonova, Global Head of Visa Direct

Lloyds settled within an hour, even over a weekend

On Sept. 30, about two weeks before the commercial launch, UK lender Lloyds Banking Group announced the results of a seven-day live settlement pilot with Visa. According to The Block, Lloyds settled $750,000 it owed Visa in USDC during that period. It bought USDC on Archax, a UK-regulated digital asset exchange, and sent it through its Jersey branch to Visa in the U.S., with the funds reaching Visa within an hour even across a weekend.

Lloyds said cross-border settlement started outside banking hours can take more than a day under the traditional process. The pilot covered settlement between the two institutions, not customer remittances. The Block also reported that Visa's stablecoin settlement volume exceeded a $20 billion annualized run rate in September.

From Sibos to Zerohash to Inyo

Visa first unveiled the stablecoin prefunding pilot on Sept. 30, 2025, at the Sibos financial conference. At the time, Visa said businesses that deposit stablecoins could use them for payouts as if they were "money in the bank," avoiding the need to park large fiat balances and moving money in minutes instead of days. It targeted limited availability by April 2026. Chris Newkirk, president of Commercial and Money Movement Solutions at Visa, said cross-border payments had been "stuck in outdated systems for far too long." The Block reported that the pilot started with USDC and the euro stablecoin EURC.

On Aug. 5 this year, a partnership with digital asset infrastructure firm Zerohash was announced. The Block reported that eligible Visa Direct businesses would be able not only to prefund but also to pay recipients directly in stablecoins. Visa Direct reaches more than 18 billion cards, bank accounts and digital wallets across more than 195 countries and territories, the outlet said.

Inyo Global, the first provider for the commercial rollout, provides payments infrastructure to remittance firms, fintechs, banks and payment companies. Inyo says a single integration lets businesses handle user onboarding, fraud prevention and regulatory compliance, payment collection and domestic and international payouts, and send money to more than 180 countries through Visa Direct. Visa did not name other providers or disclose expected volumes. Platonova is scheduled to speak at the Money20/20 USA fintech conference in the U.S. next week.

The feature is a business service for companies contracted with Visa, not a way for individuals to spend USDC with Visa cards. USDC, issued by U.S.-based Circle, traded at 1,349 won on Korea's Upbit as of 3:30 p.m. KST on Oct. 17. Its 24-hour trading value on Upbit was about 1.12 billion won, roughly 2% of tether's (USDT) about 53.55 billion won, while Bithumb saw about 530 million won.