Visa Pilots USDC Payouts for Creators and Gig Workers

Visa is piloting a new system that will allow companies to send payments directly to recipients stablecoin wallets while only sending conventional fiat USD.

Businesses will pay out in fiat USD and recipients will receive money in dollar-denominated stablecoins like Circle’s USDCworld the second largest stablecoin by capitalization. It does not appear that companies can send stablecoins directly through this scheme.

Visa did not mention if or when support for stablecoins other than USDC would be added, though it did not say the service would be exclusive to USDC. Anyone who wants to use the service to accept payments will need both stablecoins wallet and pass the usual AML/KYC checks and the pilot is currently limited to US-based platforms and firms

Visa singled out the service as useful for creators and the gig economy. For example, companies like TikTok or YouTube, which deliver small, irregular payments to millions of people around the world, although no participants have been announced.

Visa says it is in the process of recruiting partners, with wider access expected sometime in the second half of 2026, depending on local regulations. The pilot comes as part of Visa Direct, the payments giant’s service that allows users to make payments using their own payment rails instead of, say, two banks’ rails.

The payments giant also hasn’t confirmed what payment lanes the service might use, but it has recently been tying up with Circle on stablecoin infrastructure.

In late October, Circle announced that Visa was among the companies participating its new public testnet for Arcits Layer-1 blockchain network, alongside the likes of BlackRock and Goldman Sachs.

Visa eyes stable coin

Visa has made a series of increasingly bullish moves in the stablecoin space throughout 2025. In May, it poured an unspecified amount to London-based stablecoin infrastructure company BVNK as a “strategic investment” through its Visa Ventures arm.

Earlier this month, Visa released a report predicting an increased role for stablecoins worth $40 trillion global credit marketwhereas stablecoin-based lending could allow traditional institutions to shift parts of this market to programmable, blockchainrails on the base.

Meanwhile, like rival Mastercard, Visa is adding support for crypto credit cards based on stablecoins – including fintechs Rain in the US and Bridge, payment giant Stripe, in Latin America.