Visa Taps Bvnk To Power Stablecoin Payouts On Visa Direct 2026

Visa has chosen BVNK to power Visa Direct pilots using stablecoins, enabling pre-funded cross-border payouts to wallets in select markets.

Visa has chosen United Kingdom‑based stablecoin infrastructure provider BVNK to power new Visa Direct pilots, allowing some business customers to pre‑fund cross‑border payouts in stablecoins and deliver digital US dollars directly to recipients’ wallets in select markets.

The partnership, announced Wednesday, builds on Visa’s earlier stablecoin experiments, including onchain settlement tests with USDC on networks like Ethereum and Solana.

The move follows a strategic investment in BVNK in May 2025 through its Visa Ventures arm, as card schemes race to embed tokenized dollars into their treasury and payout rails.

Citi Ventures also took a stake in BVNK in October 2025, as part of Wall Street’s broader push into stablecoin infrastructure, joining Visa Ventures among the startup’s backers.

Visa executives framed the move as part of a long‑running push to modernize money movement with new rails that work outside bank operating hours, calling stablecoins “an exciting opportunity for global payments.”

A spokesperson from BVNK told Cointelegraph that the company has “a great relationship with Visa,” but that this initiative was “a competitive tender,” showing BVNK to be “best in class and winning the race in this competitive space.”

They added that Visa and BVNK have a “shared understanding of the enormous potential of stablecoins to reduce friction and expand access to faster, more efficient payment options.”

Related: BVNK raises $50M to expand into US stablecoin market

​The deal marks a rapid return to the spotlight for BVNK after Coinbase and the startup mutually agreed not to proceed with a proposed $2 billion acquisition in November last year following due diligence.

Source: CoinTelegraph