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.

Bitcoin Price

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

Related Questions

QWhat is the main purpose of the partnership between Visa and BVNK?

AThe partnership aims to enable stablecoin payments on Visa's $1.7 trillion Visa Direct platform, expanding its digital payments infrastructure.

QHow much payment volume does BVNK process annually according to the article?

ABVNK processes over $30 billion in payments annually.

QWhich two stablecoins dominated transaction volume in 2025, and what were their respective volumes?

AUSDC dominated with $18.3 trillion in transaction volume, while USDT accounted for $13.3 trillion in 2025.

QWhat significant development in US stablecoin legislation is mentioned in the article?

AThe signing of the GENIUS Act by US President Donald Trump was mentioned as a significant development in stablecoin legislation.

QWhat was Bitcoin's approximate price and weekly performance at the time of writing?

ABitcoin was trading around $95,000, up more than 3% over the past week.

Related Reads

Anthropic's IPO Launch: Commercial Miracle or Valuation Bubble?

Anthropic has confidentially filed for an IPO, led by Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, potentially going public by October. Following its latest $650 billion funding round, its pre-IPO valuation stands at $965 billion, with projections reaching up to $2 trillion at listing, which would make it the highest-valued private company ever. The article, written by Fu Sheng, addresses skepticism that this represents an AI bubble akin to the 2000 dot-com crash. It argues the current situation differs fundamentally. Unlike the internet bubble era, which relied on speculative narratives with little revenue, Anthropic's valuation is backed by unprecedented, measurable financial performance. Key data points include: * **Revenue Growth:** ARR skyrocketed from $10 billion in early 2025 to $470 billion by May 2026, targeting $100 billion by year-end—a growth curve unmatched in business history. * **Profitability:** It achieved operating profitability in Q2 2026 with an estimated $5.6 billion profit. * **Efficiency:** With ~3,000 employees and ~$470 billion ARR, its revenue per employee exceeds $10 million. Products like Claude Code, launched less than a year ago, already generate $25 billion in annualized revenue. * **Enterprise Adoption:** It boasts a strong enterprise client base, with 8 of the Fortune 10 and over 1,000 large firms spending over $1 million annually on Claude. The valuation is framed using a traditional SaaS model (e.g., a 10x Price-to-Sales multiple on $100 billion revenue). The author contends the core question for analysts has shifted from "How big could this be?" to "How much is it earning and will earn next quarter?" The discussion extends beyond Anthropic to a broader paradigm shift: the transition from a "carbon-based" to a "silicon-based" economy. Companies are increasingly prioritizing investment in compute and AI capabilities over human resources, as these directly scale productivity and competitive advantage. Anthropic's IPO is thus positioned not just as a corporate milestone, but as a price anchor for this new economic era.

链捕手2h ago

Anthropic's IPO Launch: Commercial Miracle or Valuation Bubble?

链捕手2h ago

Near Returns to the AI Stage: Transformation into a Public Chain Due to 'Payroll Difficulties,' Agent and Privacy Emerge as New Growth Narratives

NEAR Returns to AI Origins: From Payroll Struggles to Blockchain, Now Focusing on AI Agents and Privacy NEAR Protocol's journey began not with grand blockchain ambitions, but from a practical hurdle: its AI startup founders, including Transformer paper co-author Illia Polosukhin, couldn't efficiently pay international developers in 2017. This led them to pivot and build a high-performance, scalable blockchain. After years navigating various crypto narratives like sharding and cross-chain interoperability, NEAR is now leveraging its AI roots to re-enter the AI arena. A key driver is its "NEAR Intents" layer, which abstracts complex cross-chain transactions. Users simply state their goal (e.g., swap BTC for ETH), and a solver network finds the optimal route. This system has processed over $20B in cross-chain volume, generating significant fee revenue. A major growth area is private transactions via "Confidential Intents/Swaps," which hide trade details until settlement to protect against MEV and front-running. Remarkably, private swaps recently accounted for over 40% of NEAR's transaction volume, highlighting strong demand but also potential regulatory scrutiny. With its AI-founder pedigree, NEAR is positioning itself at the intersection of blockchain, AI agents, and privacy, aiming to become infrastructure for the emerging agent economy while navigating the challenges of its rapid adoption.

marsbit5h ago

Near Returns to the AI Stage: Transformation into a Public Chain Due to 'Payroll Difficulties,' Agent and Privacy Emerge as New Growth Narratives

marsbit5h ago

Trading

Spot
Futures
活动图片