Visa introduces stablecoin payouts for creators in new “breakthrough” pilot
Visa has launched a new pilot program that allows businesses to send payouts directly in stablecoins — starting with USDC — giving creators, freelancers, and gig workers near-instant access to their earnings across borders.
The initiative, unveiled Wednesday, expands Visa’s stablecoin capabilities by enabling platforms in the U.S. that use Visa Direct to fund payouts in traditional fiat currency, while recipients can choose to receive the money in USDC. According to Visa, this creates faster and more flexible payment options, especially for people in regions with unstable currencies or limited access to banking services.
“Launching stablecoin payouts is about enabling truly universal access to money in minutes — not days — for anyone, anywhere in the world,” said Chris Newkirk, Visa’s president of commercial and money movement solutions. “Whether it’s a creator building a digital brand, a freelancer working across borders, or a business expanding internationally, faster and more flexible payments benefit everyone.”
This new pilot builds on Visa’s earlier work with stablecoins. In September, the company introduced a pre-funding pilot that allowed businesses to load payout pools with stablecoins instead of fiat currency. The latest phase goes a step further by delivering stablecoins directly to end users, putting digital dollars straight into their wallets.
To receive payouts, users must have a compatible stablecoin wallet and meet standard KYC/AML requirements. A Visa spokesperson confirmed to The Block that supported wallets will need to meet Visa’s technical protocols and compliance standards.
The pilot will begin with select, unnamed partners, and Visa plans a broader rollout in the second half of 2026 as regulatory clarity improves and client demand increases. Only USDC will be supported at launch, and Visa has not disclosed additional partners.
Visa’s rapidly expanding stablecoin strategy
Visa has significantly expanded its stablecoin initiatives over the past year, helped by the passage of the U.S. GENIUS Act, the first federal legislation to establish clear rules for stablecoins — a sector many analysts expect to grow into a trillion-dollar market.
Since 2020, Visa has handled over $140 billion in crypto and stablecoin-related transactions, CEO Ryan McInerney said during the company’s latest earnings call. Visa cardholders have purchased more than $100 billion worth of digital assets using their Visa credentials and have spent over $35 billion worth of crypto and stablecoins at merchants.
“We now have more than 130 stablecoin-linked card programs across 40+ countries,” McInerney said. “And in Q4, stablecoin-linked Visa card spending quadrupled year-over-year. We’ve also expanded the number of supported stablecoins and blockchains for settlement, and monthly volume has surpassed a $2.5 billion annualized run rate.”
Visa has been actively forming partnerships to support this growth. Earlier this year, it teamed up with Bridge, a Stripe-owned company, to allow developers to issue stablecoin-linked Visa cards. It also partnered with Yellow Card in Africa to explore treasury and liquidity applications. In addition, Visa launched the Visa Tokenized Asset Platform, allowing banks to experiment with creating and managing their own stablecoins in controlled pilot environments.
According to McInerney, stablecoins have become a central part of Visa’s long-term roadmap, particularly in emerging markets and for use cases like remittances, B2B payments, and gig worker payouts.
When asked whether Visa might one day issue its own stablecoin, a spokesperson told The Block: “In the stablecoin ecosystem, it’s hard to rule anything out.” However, they emphasized that Visa’s current focus is on scaling real-world use cases and infrastructure for existing stablecoins through card programs, settlement options, and deeper bank integrations.
