Visa Brings Stablecoins To $1.7 Trillion Platform In BVNK Partnership

bitcoinistPublished on 2026-01-15Last updated on 2026-01-15

Abstract

Visa has partnered with stablecoin infrastructure provider BVNK to integrate stablecoin payments into its Visa Direct platform, a $1.7 trillion real-time global payout system. This collaboration aims to modernize money movement by reducing friction and providing faster, more efficient payment options, including during non-banking hours. Initially targeting markets with strong digital payment demand, the service will include stablecoin pre-funding and payouts. The partnership follows an investment by Visa Ventures in BVNK in May 2025. Both companies emphasize the transformative potential of stablecoins as a core payments infrastructure. This move comes as stablecoin adoption grows, with total transaction volume reaching a record $33 trillion in 2025, led by USDC and USDT.

Visa has partnered with BVNK to bring stablecoin payments to the Visa Direct platform, expanding its digital payments infrastructure.

BVNK Will Power Visa Direct’s Stablecoin Infrastructure

As announced in a Wednesday press release, BVNK and Visa have formed a strategic partnership to enable stablecoin payments on the latter’s Visa Direct platform. Based in the US, Visa is the second-largest card payment organization globally, behind only China’s UnionPay. In fact, when excluding China, the firm is the single largest, making up for 50% of total card payments.

Lately, Visa has been exploring digital asset payments, particularly those involving stablecoins, in a bid to modernize money movement. In 2025, the payments giant ran multiple stablecoin pilots related to Visa Direct, its $1.7 trillion real-time global payouts platform.

Now, it seems Visa has taken the next step by partnering with BVNK, a stablecoin infrastructure provider processing over $30 billion in payments annually. Mark Nelsen, Visa’s head of product, commercial, and money movement, said:

Stablecoins are an exciting opportunity for global payments, with enormous potential to reduce friction and expand access to faster, more efficient payment options – including during weekends, holidays and when banks are closed.

Starting with markets with strong demand for digital payments, BVNK will power a few different Visa Direct services, including stablecoin pre-funding and payouts. Visa’s new deal with BVNK hasn’t come out of the blue. Back in May 2025, Visa Ventures made an investment in the digital asset payments rail company. Jesse Hemson-Struthers, BVNK CEO, noted:

Visa and BVNK both believe in the transformational potential of stablecoin technology, not just as a payment method, but as a powerful layer of payments infrastructure.

Following the initial rollout, a broader global expansion of the service is planned, but so far, it’s unconfirmed which markets will be included, only that Visa will decide it based on “customer needs.” Stablecoins have witnessed growing adoption during the past year, as multiple countries have pushed on with legislation related to the sector. Among the most notable developments was the signing of the GENIUS Act by US President Donald Trump.

According to a report from Bloomberg, total stablecoin transaction volume rose 72% to $33 trillion in 2025, a new record.

The breakdown of transactions across the major fiat-tied tokens | Source: Bloomberg

Tether’s USDT is the largest fiat-tied cryptocurrency based on market cap, with a valuation that’s more than double Circle’s USDC, but the latter still dominated in transactions during 2025. USDC made up for $18.3 trillion of the total volume, while USDT accounted for $13.3 trillion.

Together, the two tokens covered an extreme majority of the total volume last year, suggesting that activity related to other dollar-pegged tokens and non-USD stablecoins remained low.

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At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading around $95,000, up more than 3% over the past week.

Looks like the price of the coin has surged over the past day | Source: BTCUSDT on TradingView

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