Visa Pilots Pre-Funded Stablecoins for Cross-Border Payments

Visa (V) is commencing a pre-funding pilot for the use stablecoins through Visa Direct, its real-time payments platform. Businesses would now be able to move money across borders free of the requirement to park large fiat in balance in advance, Visa announced on Tuesday . "The goal: reduce friction, unlock faster access to liquidity and give financial institutions more flexibility in how they manage global payouts," the payments giant said. Businesses would pre-fund their Visa Direct account with stablecoins instead of fiat, which Visa would count as "money in the bank," meaning the funds would be available to payout. Visa, like several of their peers in traditional financial (TradFi) payments, has been accelerating its plans in stablecoins - crypto tokens pegged to the value of a TradFi asset such as a a fiat currency. They have been capturing the increased interest in their use as major jurisdictions have introduced formal regulatory regimes overseeing stablecoins.