On August 5, 2026, Visa officially announced a partnership with the on-chain infrastructure provider Zerohash, which will integrate crypto dollar functionalities directly into its core payment network, Visa Direct. According to the announcement, eligible Visa Direct customers in the future will be able to pre-fund merchant accounts with crypto dollars and initiate payments or funds transfers through crypto dollars—crypto native assets are no longer confined to peripheral pilot programs but are being brought onto this global pipeline, which covers over 195 countries and regions and connects over 18 billion card, bank account, and digital wallet endpoints. For cross-border payment businesses that have long relied on multi-level intermediary banks, introducing crypto dollars into this regulated network means that traditional payment systems are beginning to systematically open interfaces for on-chain settlement, potentially reducing certain intermediary steps within the existing compliance framework and impacting the time costs and landscape of cross-border payments. The extent of this change will be tested by the market and regulators once this capability is officially implemented.
Access to on-chain dollar settlements within a 195-country payment network
In Visa's landscape, Visa Direct is not a peripheral business but a real-time backbone network for cross-border transfers and merchant settlements, covering over 195 countries and regions and connecting more than 18 billion endpoints, from bank cards to bank accounts to various digital wallets woven into this network. In the past, when a business wanted to make a payment to an overseas merchant, funds often had to circulate through multiple intermediary banks and institutions; now, Visa has chosen to directly integrate the crypto dollar capability into this backbone instead of creating a separate "experimental line," meaning that future on-chain settlements will be pushed into a wider range of real business scenarios through this established regulated channel.
Compared to previous pilot projects for crypto dollars conducted through partners—where collaborations with institutions like BVNK were mentioned but details remain to be verified—this cooperation marks the first time that crypto dollars are entrenched in Visa Direct's functional framework at the structural level. According to the official statement, "eligible Visa Direct customers" can pre-fund merchant accounts with crypto dollars and initiate payments or funds transfers using crypto dollars. This directly rewrites the funding paths for businesses and platforms: on one end is the regulated Visa payment network, and on the other end are the on-chain crypto dollar assets. Businesses can arrange pre-funding, payments, and receipts within the same channel without needing to maintain a fragmented settlement system for on-chain and offline transactions, establishing an initial structural bridge between traditional payment networks and on-chain dollar settlements.
Zerohash takes charge of on-chain details behind the scenes
When businesses use crypto dollars to pre-fund and initiate payments on the Visa Direct side, they see a familiar settlement interface and clearing reports, while the complex on-chain world at the other end is outsourced to Zerohash. As an institution-focused on-chain infrastructure provider, Zerohash's role is to bridge the traditional financial system and blockchain networks, translating business instructions into specific on-chain transactions: generating transactions, broadcasting to the relevant networks, reconciling on-chain accounting results, and coordinating compliance processes such as identity verification and anti-money laundering (AML) during this process—this is standard practice in similar collaborative structures. Visa's announcement only confirmed that Zerohash would provide technical and compliance support but did not specify more detailed responsibilities, effectively handing over the construction and day-to-day maintenance of the "on-chain pipeline" to a specialized external team while continuing to focus on the rules, risk control, and global acceptance of the payment network.
From Visa's perspective, choosing Zerohash instead of building a full-stack on-chain capability is largely a trade-off regarding complexity and iteration speed: on-chain networks, crypto dollar assets, and varied regulatory requirements change frequently. Building in-house means synchronously maintaining multiple chains, various assets, and numerous compliance schemes globally; outsourcing this layer to specialized infrastructure providers allows for quicker adjustments or overlays when technology and regulatory environments change. According to some publicly available information, Zerohash provides technical stacks and regulatory support across multiple blockchain and crypto dollar assets, but these specific scopes remain to be further verified; if this direction holds true, it means that businesses accessing Visa Direct in the future will not be locked into any one crypto dollar or single chain but will gain a greater range of asset and network choices within the existing compliance framework, also allowing for a scalable architectural foundation for the integration of crypto dollars with mainstream payment networks.
The path for cross-border merchants to receive payments has been quietly rewritten
In the past, when cross-border merchants wanted to receive money, they often had to trace back along a lengthy chain: buyers completed payments on platforms or with local acquiring institutions, and funds were concentrated in the platform's account; the platform would initiate settlement instructions through partner banks, which would then be relayed through multiple intermediary banks and institutions. After deducting various fees, the funds would finally reach the merchant's account at their local bank. For those reliant on platform economies, freelancers, and cross-border e-commerce sellers, this meant uncertain arrival times and long settlement cycles. Platforms, in order to control costs and compliance risks, often compressed settlement frequencies, turning "daily settlements" into "weekly or even longer intervals," with turnover pressure being passed down to individuals and small merchants at the very end.
In this context, the current cooperation allows eligible Visa Direct customers to pre-fund merchant accounts with crypto dollars and then use the network of Visa Direct, which covers over 195 countries and regions and connects over 18 billion endpoints, to complete payments and transfers. Technically, this separates "where the money comes from" and "how the money is sent out" into two layers: the upper layer uses crypto dollars to quickly complete pre-funding on-chain, while the lower layer continues through the regulated, traceable Visa Direct settlement channel. Theoretically, this can help platforms control merchant balances and settlement rhythms more flexibly, providing freelancers and cross-border e-commerce sellers with a more frequent, even near real-time withdrawal experience while maintaining the audit trail of on-chain settlements under existing rules like AML and KYC, but to what extent this model can compress time and costs still requires further official disclosures and actual market operational data for verification.
The power struggle for dominance in on-chain payments in the regulatory moat
From a regulatory perspective, any cross-border payment business must address anti-money laundering (AML) and know your customer (KYC) requirements, which are the bottom line that global payment institutions must adhere to. As a licensed payment network, Visa had previously remained more in the pilot and limited scenario phase in the crypto dollar space but is now attempting to directly integrate crypto dollars into core networks like Visa Direct. This serves to restrict the user population for on-chain settlements to institutions and enterprises that have already completed KYC and are subject to continuous monitoring while also leveraging the risk control systems of a regulated network to incorporate the on-chain circulation of crypto dollars into a traceable and auditable path, thereby turning compliance itself into a new moat for entering on-chain payments.
This pathway poses a structural competition to completely open on-chain payment solutions: open solutions emphasize that any address can freely initiate transfers, while the combination of Visa and Zerohash wraps the on-chain settlement of crypto dollars within a licensed network, exchanging regulatory trust through the accountability of entry, exit, and nodes. Regulatory agencies have yet to respond clearly to this cooperation, and the market cannot simply infer a fundamental shift in crypto dollar policy from this, but once this "on-chain settlement operating within an existing compliance framework" is seen as an acceptable paradigm, regulatory judgments about the role of crypto dollars in mainstream payments will likely first revolve around similar models. Assessing the scope for open on-chain payments will be a key variable that requires long-term observation.
Next step: Who will be the first to utilize crypto dollars?
From small-scale pilot projects a few years ago to directly integrating crypto dollars into Visa Direct, which covers 195 countries and regions and connects 18 billion endpoints, this cooperation with Zerohash means that crypto dollars are placed firmly in the "center" of mainstream payment infrastructure for the first time. However, it still remains at the architectural level: Visa has not provided a specific launch timeline, nor disclosed the first batch of supported crypto dollar assets, the blockchains used, or rate structures, and it currently only targets "eligible Visa Direct customers," clearly first testing this in a controlled environment for institutions and businesses. The real focus moving forward should be on three lines: first, when different regions will gradually open this capability, second, which industries (cross-border e-commerce, B-end services, platform enterprises, etc.) will first use crypto dollars for merchant account pre-funding and transfers, and third, how other international payment networks and crypto-native payment projects will follow suit—whether they choose to cooperate with infrastructure providers like Zerohash to replicate a compliant on-chain settlement channel or bet on a differentiated path from Visa. Who can first run convincing real payment scenarios in an auditable on-chain settlement model will determine the depth and direction of this round of crypto dollars "networking."
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