Visa to Pilot Stablecoin Pre-Funding for Cross-Border Payments, Citing Clarity from U.S. Genius Act
Visa (V.N) said it will begin piloting a new method for businesses to fund cross-border payments that replaces the traditional practice of pre-depositing cash in local bank accounts with the use of stablecoins. The initiative marks a broader shift toward mainstream acceptance of these digital tokens by large corporations, momentum that has accelerated since the United States enacted the Genius Act, legislation that set out clear regulatory guardrails for stablecoin issuers. “The Genius Act changed everything. It made everything so much more legitimate. Before that regulatory clarity, all the big institutions were sort of on the fence,” Mark Nelsen, head of product for Visa’s commercial and money movement solutions, told Reuters in an interview.
Visa said it is working with several undisclosed partners on the pilot and expects to widen the program next year. Under the trial, banks, remittance companies and other financial institutions will be able to pre-fund accounts with stablecoins in lieu of depositing fiat currencies. By swapping out traditional pre-funding for tokenized balances, participants could accelerate settlement times and unlock liquidity that is typically trapped across multiple jurisdictions, where firms often maintain pools of cash in various currencies to meet local payout obligations.
Stablecoins are digital assets engineered to maintain a steady value, commonly pegged to a reference such as the U.S. dollar and backed by reserves like cash and U.S. Treasuries. Their speed and efficiency in moving money internationally have sparked debate over whether they might chip away at the dominance of established payment networks and put pressure on regional banks that rely on fee income from cross-border services. “Stablecoins are moving from crypto gimmick to financial plumbing. It’s one of the reasons we launched an inverse regional bank exchange-traded fund as I think the regionals are in trouble,” said Matthew Tuttle, CEO of Tuttle Capital Management, referring to a vehicle designed to profit if regional bank shares fall.
Visa’s effort underscores how some incumbents are opting to integrate, rather than resist, the technology—repurposing stablecoins as operational tools within existing rails instead of allowing would-be disruptors to define the market. The company’s approach suggests that tokenized settlement can complement, rather than replace, the vast infrastructure already used to route global payments. “The amount of software and technology that’s been deployed globally for payments is hard to recreate. So it seems more likely to just incorporate stablecoin technology into existing flows,” Nelsen said.
If successful, the pilot could reduce the need for corporates and financial intermediaries to immobilize capital around the world, streamline treasury operations and improve predictability for cross-border payouts. At the same time, it may offer a blueprint for how regulated entities can adopt stablecoins at scale without rebuilding core systems from scratch—leveraging regulatory clarity from the Genius Act while preserving the compliance and security standards required by large institutions.
