zerohash and Visa have partnered to bring stablecoin prefunding and payout capabilities to eligible Visa Direct clients.
The partnership is set to allow Visa Direct clients to prefund accounts and disburse payouts using stablecoins, with zerohash providing the underlying infrastructure. Visa Direct, the company's real-time payments platform, reaches more than 18 billion endpoints across cards, accounts, and digital wallets in over 195 countries and territories.
Building on a 2025 pilot
The announcement extends a pilot programme Visa first unveiled at Sibos 2025, which tested stablecoins as a funding source for Visa Direct. Under that pilot, participating banks and payment providers could prefund transactions with stablecoins instead of depositing fiat currency in advance, with Visa treating the stablecoin balances as available funds for payouts; recipients continued to receive local currency. Visa officials said existing cross-border systems remained slow and costly, and described the pilot as a way to make funding more immediate, reduce exposure to currency fluctuations, and improve predictability in treasury operations.
Platform capabilities
zerohash supplies the regulatory and technical infrastructure behind the integration, spanning dozens of blockchains and stablecoins, alongside tools for customer usability. Edward Woodford, founder and CEO of zerohash, said the company's infrastructure already supports partners across the payments and money movement stack, including Morgan Stanley, card issuer Marqeta, and payment service provider Worldpay.
In addition, Mark Nelsen, global head of product at Visa, said the company continues to invest in infrastructure that extends the reach of Visa Direct, adding that working with zerohash is intended to bring stablecoin capabilities to clients at scale in a way that remains interoperable with existing financial systems. For businesses, the integration is designed to support settlement and cross-border money movement on a 24/7 basis, while for recipients, it is intended to increase the speed of payouts and widen access to stablecoins.
Wider regulatory and strategic context
The Visa partnership adds to zerohash's broader expansion in regulated markets. In an exclusive interview at Money20/20, The Paypers spoke with zerohash CMO Katie Perry to understand where that shift is heading and what's actually driving the company. Founded in 2017, the institution built a compliance-focused infrastructure business serving institutions including BlackRock and Franklin Templeton, alongside Morgan Stanley. In 2026, zerohash obtained a MiCAR authorisation and an electronic money institution licence from the Dutch central bank, extending its regulatory footprint in Europe. Other zerohash-supported use cases include instant account funding for Interactive Brokers and near real-time cross-border contractor payments for Gusto.
At the same time, the company has also pointed to growing stablecoin use in wealth management, citing data showing that 51% of high-net-worth investors aged 18 to 40 have left a financial advisor that does not offer crypto exposure.
Taken together, the developments illustrate how stablecoins are moving beyond trading and treasury pilots into core payment network infrastructure, with Visa Direct serving as one of the larger distribution points for that shift.
