Visa Direct Moves USDC Prefunding Into Commercial Production

Inyo Global on Oct. 16 became the first Visa Direct processor to bring USDC stablecoin prefunding into full commercial production. The service, built on Circle's USDC, enables qualifying businesses to make near-real-time cross-border payouts in more than 180 countries — including during periods when conventional funding channels are unavailable.

Details

Inyo Global provides compliance, fraud detection, and international payout infrastructure for money transmitters, fintechs, banks, and payment companies via Visa Direct. Access to the USDC prefunding service is through Inyo's existing APIs, subject to eligibility requirements and geographic limitations.

Visa has built out its stablecoin infrastructure in stages: prefunding trials using USDC and EURC began in September 2025, focused on how businesses fund payments. In November 2025, testing expanded to allow eligible recipients to receive USDC directly. In August 2026, Visa partnered with Zerohash to support stablecoin infrastructure more broadly. In early October 2026, Visa and Lloyds Bank completed a $750,000 USDC settlement in under one hour, including over the weekend. The Inyo Global commercial launch marks the first time this capability is available to businesses at production scale, according to The Block.

What It Means for Markets

Commercial production through Inyo Global moves USDC payments on Visa Direct beyond pilot status into a live settlement channel for businesses globally. For Circle, it further establishes USDC as infrastructure for major payment networks. The push mirrors a parallel move by Mastercard: Mastercard and BVNK launched a unified fiat and stablecoin account in October 2026, signaling that the race to embed stablecoins in legacy payment rails is accelerating.