Visa expands stablecoin capabilities on Visa Direct through Zero Hash collaboration

Visa is making its most aggressive push yet into stablecoin infrastructure, expanding the capabilities of its Visa Direct real-time payments network to support stablecoin-based prefunding, payouts, and direct wallet transfers. The collaboration with Zero Hash, a firm that provides critical backend infrastructure for stablecoin settlement and liquidity, gives Visa Direct customers a faster, cheaper path for moving money, particularly across borders. What Visa is actually building The expansion effectively layers stablecoin functionality on top of Visa Direct’s existing real-time payment rails. Instead of routing every transaction through traditional correspondent banking channels, the network can now use stablecoins as a settlement mechanism for cross-border transfers and payouts. Zero Hash’s role here is the plumbing. The company provides the infrastructure that handles the actual stablecoin settlement, ensuring liquidity and speed for payments companies plugging into the ecosystem. This builds on a series of moves Visa has made since late 2025. The company partnered with BVNK in January 2026, leveraging a prior investment made through Visa Ventures, to let Visa Direct customers fu...