Visa takes USDC prefunding for Visa Direct payouts into production through Inyo Global

Visa introduced two separate stablecoin pilots in 2025: a prefunding trial in September ^[2] and, in November, a program letting eligible businesses send dollar-backed stablecoins directly to digital wallets, aimed at creators and gig workers ^[3]. Prefunding is the business's side of a payout, the way a company supplies the money behind it ^[5]. Only that one is reported as commercial, about 13 months after its pilot began ^[16]. The reports do not say whether the wallet program follows.

USDC is issued by Circle and designed to hold $1 ^[15], so the gain to a provider is timing. Conventional prefunding often means placing money in designated accounts before payments can be processed, with availability tied to banking hours and settlement schedules, particularly across borders ^[13]. Robson Dantas, Inyo Global's co-founder and chief product and technology officer, said the integration lets businesses fund payouts at any hour, using technology they already know ^[12].

In our view this is a production launch whose reach is one named processor ^[1]. Prefunding is a treasury function, and a card network now lets one processor's clients run it in USDC. The reports describe the offering as another funding option for eligible businesses ^[14].

From here, USDC could stay a minor option on Inyo's platform. Or a second Visa Direct processor could add it, and Visa would then have a network feature. Or the wallet pilot could graduate, and the stablecoin would reach the recipient as well as the funder.

The reports do not include volumes, fees or a client count, so how much cash moves onto USDC is unmeasured. Heavy prefunding by Inyo's clients would make "small" the wrong word for this launch; a second processor would too.