Global fintech giant Visa will roll out a new pilot program that allows businesses to make payments to individual stablecoin wallets in fiat currency, while recipients can choose to receive funds in US dollar-backed stablecoins.
According to a Nov. 12 press release from Visa, the new pilot is aimed at international businesses, marketplaces, creator and gig economy platforms, fintechs, and recipients with a compatible stablecoin wallet and who meet KYC/AML checks.
Reaction to the pilot program has seemingly been universally positive with numerous noteworthy figures and organizations within the cryptocurrency community posting bullish comments in response to the launch.
Year of the stablecoin
The cryptocurrency sector has seen record-setting growth, as a whole, throughout all of 2025. The explosive surge in global interest was arguably sparked by the Donald Trump administration’s pro-crypto regulatory approach, starting in January.
In the time since, stablecoins have received the mainstream treatment. Crypto incumbents such as Circle have seen massive interest for their stablecoin products while mainstream financial service organizations, such as Visa, have steadily increased their exposure.
Cathie Wood, CEO of Ark Invest, has even reduced her bullish price forecast on Bitcoin. It was previously set at $1.5 million but the veteran forecaster lowered it to $1.2 million per coin citing the growth of stablecoins as a driving factor behind the change.
Visa, for its part, has seemingly gone all in on stablecoins, implementing fiat-to-crypto bridges throughout its Visa Direct stack and other service areas. On Sept. 30, for example, the firm launched a stablecoin prefund pilot program.
The company says the previously launched program will work in tandem with the newly launched fiat-to-stablecoin pilot program, allowing businesses to prefund payment accounts with stablecoins or make remittances directly from their fiat accounts to recipients’ crypto wallets.