Visa expands stablecoin capabilities on Visa Direct with zerohash collaboration

Visa is expanding stablecoin functionality on its Visa Direct platform through a new collaboration with onchain infrastructure provider zerohash. 

Eligible Visa Direct clients will soon be able to prefund merchant accounts and send payouts using stablecoins, with zerohash supplying the underlying technology and regulatory support, according to a press release on Wednesday.

Visa Direct reportedly connects to more than 18 billion endpoints — including cards, bank accounts, and digital wallets — across over 195 countries and territories, according to the announcement. 

"Stablecoins are creating new opportunities to make money movement faster and more flexible, particularly for cross-border use cases," Global Head of Product at Visa Mark Nelsen said in a statement. "Working with zerohash helps us bring stablecoin capabilities to our clients at scale, in a way that’s reliable and interoperable with the financial systems they already rely on today."

The integration is intended to give businesses greater flexibility in managing liquidity and settling transactions around the clock, particularly for cross-border activity, while allowing recipients to receive funds directly in stablecoins for faster access.

"Unlocking stablecoin use cases at the core network level further accelerates adoption globally," zerohash CEO Edward Woodford said in a statement. "This partnership helps extend access to onchain money into Visa Direct. It gives businesses a faster way to prefund and manage liquidity across borders, and gives recipients quicker access to money and ultimately more choice."

The move builds on Visa’s broader stablecoin and blockchain efforts, like its internal stablecoin platform. Visa is also one of dozens of firms to join Open Standard, which is launching the OUSD stablecoin. The company has said stablecoins will not only facilitate global transactions for people, but will also enable new forms of commerce in the burgeoning agentic economy.

Zerohash, founded in 2017, last raised a $104 million Series D-2 round led by Interactive Brokers at a $1 billion valuation. The firm was reportedly an acquisition target for Visa rival Mastercard, before those talks fizzled out. 

Notably, in May, zerohash became the first firm licensed under Europe’s flagship MiCA crypto regulation to also receive Electronic Money Institution (EMI) standing. The firm has also applied to the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency for a national trust bank charter.