Visa to offer stablecoin prefunding and payouts with Zerohash

Visa will let eligible Visa Direct clients prefund accounts and send cross-border payouts in stablecoins through crypto infrastructure provider Zerohash, with recipients able to receive funds in stablecoins rather than local currency. The capability is available via Visa Direct, Visa’s money-movement network.

Zerohash announced the integration on Wednesday. The addition allows businesses to fund Visa Direct accounts with stablecoins before initiating payments and to send payouts across borders using the same tokens. The feature lets companies manage liquidity outside traditional banking hours and gives recipients the option to accept stablecoin payments instead of converting to local fiat on receipt.

Edward Woodford, founder and CEO of Zerohash, described the integration as bringing stablecoin use cases to a core payments network and accelerating global adoption. Mark Nelsen, Visa’s global head of product, noted that stablecoins can make cross-border money movement faster and more flexible and that working with Zerohash helps deliver capabilities at scale while remaining interoperable with existing financial systems.

Zerohash, founded in 2017, provides crypto infrastructure to banks and fintechs. In March the firm applied for a national trust bank charter to expand custody and settlement services. Earlier this year Zerohash supported Morgan Stanley’s rollout of Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana trading for E*Trade customers.

The arrangement follows a January pilot with BVNK that tested stablecoin prefunding and payouts on Visa Direct and Visa’s July launch of the Visa Stablecoin Platform, which offers banks and fintechs tools to issue, hold and transfer stablecoins within treasury and payments systems.

Under the new rails, eligible Visa Direct clients can prefund accounts with stablecoins before executing payouts, a feature that can reduce reliance on correspondent banking windows and local overnight limits. Recipients with compatible wallets or custodial arrangements may choose to receive payments in stablecoins, which they can hold, convert, or move on-chain according to their operational needs.

Visa did not specify which stablecoins will be supported or provide a full list of eligible clients. Zerohash indicated availability will roll out through Visa Direct clients that meet its integration criteria.

The technical integration uses Zerohash’s custody and settlement stack together with Visa Direct’s existing money-movement network, allowing participating businesses to route prefunding and payout instructions through tokenized instruments instead of relying solely on fiat banking infrastructure. The firms described the setup as a way to link bank-based payment flows and blockchain-based token settlement while maintaining ties to existing payment rails and compliance controls.