Businesses are increasingly using stablecoins for supplier payments, treasury management and cross-border commerce, according to new data from Visa. Business payments now account for about 17 per cent of volume on cards linked to stablecoins.
"Businesses aren't looking for new payment technologies for the sake of innovation. They're looking for trusted, reliable ways to move money," says Mark Nelsen, Global Head of Product, Commercial & Money Movement Solutions at Visa.
Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies pegged to an ordinary currency, most often the US dollar. For years they have mainly been used to move money between crypto exchanges. What is changing, according to Nelsen, is that stablecoins are increasingly part of the conversation around real business applications, from supplier payments and treasury operations, meaning a company's day-to-day management of liquidity and cash, to cross-border commerce.
Visa describes a shift in which businesses, financial institutions and payment providers are adopting stablecoins as financial infrastructure rather than as a trading instrument. The uses it highlights are settlement between parties, treasury management, payouts and cross-border commerce.
Data firm Allium, which Visa cites, finds that businesses are the recipient in 58 to 64 per cent of all stablecoin payments. The largest categories are service fees at $56 billion, payroll at $43 billion and supplier payments at $28 billion from January to August 2026.
Payments between businesses are also the part of the market that most often crosses borders. 43 per cent of volume in that category is cross-border, according to Allium.
Visa today supports more than 160 card programmes linked to stablecoins, spanning consumer, business and commercial cards. Payments volume across these programmes has grown nearly 200 per cent year over year.
Of that volume, about 17 per cent has come from cards issued to businesses so far in fiscal year 2026, the rest from consumer cards. Visa reads the share as a sign that interest in stablecoins for settlement, treasury and cross-border commerce is reaching its own network.
In its September report "State of Stablecoins and Payments", Allium estimates that payments are the fastest-growing use of stablecoins. Payment volume was between $401 billion and $527 billion from January to August 2026, up 42 to 63 per cent on the same period a year earlier.
Allium itself stresses that the figures are estimates. The blockchain records amounts, dates and addresses, but not who owns a wallet or what a transfer is for. The range of $401 billion to $527 billion arises because four different methods for classifying wallets and transfers produce different totals.
Visa says it continues to expand its stablecoin capabilities across settlement, money movement and payment acceptance. Among the initiatives it names are stablecoin settlement, stablecoin pre-funding in its payout service Visa Direct, and stablecoin payouts.
Sources: Visa, Allium
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