VISA TESTS STABLECOIN PAYMENTS FOR CROSS-BORDER TRANSFERS

Summary from the TLDR Crypto newsletter

Visa has launched a pilot allowing businesses to pre-fund Visa Direct with USDC and EURC, treating them as available balances for instant cross-border payouts instead of locking up fiat days in advance. The initiative aims to cut settlement times from days to minutes, improve liquidity access, and support programmable payments, with limited availability planned by April 2026. While Visa is not ruling out issuing its own stablecoin, the focus is on scaling existing assets, extending its broader stablecoin strategy that includes card-linked spending, African payments with Yellow Card, and developer integrations via Stripe-owned Bridge.