Visa has launched a pilot program allowing freelancers and gig economy workers to receive payments in stablecoins. Building on Visa’s stablecoin cross-border project introduced last month, this initiative will test whether such payments are viable.
The Visa Direct pilot lets businesses fund payouts in fiat currency while disbursing earnings directly to workers’ stablecoin wallets. It follows a previous Visa Direct program that allowed entities to pre-fund accounts in local currencies for cross-border stablecoin payouts
Lower Costs for Businesses
Stablecoin usage for domestic payments remains less explored, but the Visa project builds on a few emerging trends. The low transaction costs associated with stablecoins make them useful for high-frequency, low-value payouts, such as those a gig company might make to its workers.
The state of Wyoming introduced its own stablecoin in August with similar ambitions, hoping that contractors would use it to pay workers. However, the benefits for freelance workers in the U.S. are less clear.
“The use cases for gig workers are probably for solutions like Upwork, Fiverr, Guru and the like, where U.S. firms outsource work like coding to resources in India and other locations where labor costs are lower,” said Hugh Thomas, Lead Analyst, Commercial and Enterprise at Javelin Strategy & Research. “I see no real need for this when it comes to U.S.-to-U.S. gig work.”
Visa may see more traction in Latin America, where transaction costs are especially high. According to Mastercard, the average cost of sending remittances in Latin America is 6.3%, so the program could lower costs for gig-economy companies there.
Seeking Faster Payments
On the other hand, Visa’s data suggests that these workers are looking for more reliable and faster payment methods. More than half of creators surveyed said they prioritize instant access when choosing payment methods, and 86% have had to use personal funds or credit cards to finance their work.
Visa also found that these workers are already being paid through digital processors and platforms. It hopes this indicates both their comfort with modern payment technologies and a potential pathway toward wider stablecoin adoption.
