How stablecoin cards are turning a crypto-native asset into a mainstream payments rail.

A cardholder taps $5 at a coffee shop. During the ~400 milliseconds before the terminal confirms the transaction, the issuer processor must answer one simple question: does this account have sufficient funds?

Modern issuer processors such as Marqeta and Galileo answer it easily when the balance sits in fiat on a traditional ledger. They cannot answer it when the balance sits in stablecoins such as USDC, outside the systems they were built to read. Companies like Rain and Reap built that capability for new stablecoin card programs and already process billions annually.

This article maps the stablecoin card market as it stands, examines where the next $100 billion of volume comes from, and looks at the infrastructure that will carry it.

Stablecoin cards are working

Stablecoin-linked debit cards are one of the clearest examples of product-market fit in crypto. The demand is simple: access to digital dollars that can also be easily spent. For a stablecoin holder, a card is the shortest path from a digital balance to groceries, fuel, and everyday commerce. Visa estimates that stablecoin-linked card volume grew 319% to $5.2 billion in 2025, across more than 130 card programs in over 50 countries.

While crypto cards are not new, the underlying asset and infrastructure have changed materially. Coinbase and WireX enabled users to spend BTC at merchants as early as 2015, but adoption remained limited because users were still spending a volatile asset and often incurred meaningful conversion fees. Coinbase, for example, has charged 2.49% on purchases funded with non-stablecoin crypto assets.

Stablecoins make the card program more compelling. By placing a dollar-denominated stablecoin behind the customer balance or within the funding and settlement flow, the card avoids liquidating a volatile asset at the point of purchase and reduces conversion friction. When those dollar balances are spent in local currencies, the platform can also capture the FX economics. For wallets, exchanges, and neobanks, the card adds a new monetization layer through interchange and related financial services.

For merchants, however, the experience remains largely unchanged today. Rain’s CEO said stablecoin-funded payments have reached more than 100,000 merchants without them knowing it, as transactions still settle through traditional payment networks on T+3. The next step is moving stablecoins deeper into merchant settlement, with providers such as Stripe/Bridge beginning to enable merchants to settle directly in stablecoins.

Behind this growth, a new infrastructure stack is taking shape. The map below shows the key players at each layer, from the distributors that own the customer relationship to the networks that route each transaction.

Four observations define the stack today:

1. The strongest early adopters are platforms that already own the customer relationship. Exchanges, neobanks, wallets, and credit platforms begin with an existing base of crypto and stablecoin users. Adding a card lets them monetize that customer base through everyday spending and creates demand for every layer beneath it.
2. Full-stack still dominates. Much of today’s stablecoin-linked card market is powered by full-stack providers such as Rain and Reap. Their principal memberships with Visa and Mastercard give them direct network access, on top of which they bundle program management, processing, stablecoin conversion, banking relationships, and interchange revenue sharing. For customers, this is the fastest route to launch; for Rain and Reap, it keeps more of the economics across interchange, FX, and float in-house. The model has already reached meaningful scale, with Rain and Reap together processing close to $9 billion in annualized card volume.
3. A modular route is forming. Companies can increasingly assemble card programs from specialists across sponsorship, processing, liquidity and program management. Lightspark’s Visa card program, announced in August 2026, runs Lithic for processing, Lead Bank for issuance, and Lightspark for USDC settlement, with no full-stack provider in between. The approach could become mainstream as card products expand across markets with different banks, licenses, and payment rails, and as companies seek to reduce concentration. Kulipa’s abrupt shutdown in July 2026, which stranded card programs across 20 clients, and Rain’s August 2026 hack, which drained $1.1 million from card balances across its program partners, illustrate that risk.
4. Banks can become the anchor for a modular stack. Many established issuing banks such as Lead Bank and Cross River already hold direct Visa/Mastercard membership and provide BIN sponsorship, settlement and compliance oversight. Rather than being bypassed by full-stack players, they can extend that role into stablecoin cards and allow customers to choose processors, liquidity providers, and other infrastructure independently. A new generation of stablecoin-native banks such as Erebor and Pave Bank could push this further, combining a regulated banking layer with stablecoin custody and compliance from day one. The result would be a more modular, competitive market.

The next $100 billion in stablecoin card volume

Stablecoin supply grew from $124 billion at the end of 2023 to over $300 billion by mid-2026, creating a growing pool of balances that can be spent through cards. According to Paymentscan, cumulative spending on stablecoin-powered cards has now surpassed $10.9 billion, while RedotPay forecasts annual spending could reach $50 billion by 2028.

The market remains concentrated, with Rain and Reap accounting for most issuance volume. Consolidation has already begun: Reap has been acquired by Kraken for $600 million.

Despite the growth, stablecoin cards remain a small part of the broader card ecosystem. Global card purchase volume is ~$30-40 trillion a year. Marqeta alone processed $383 billion in 2025, while Galileo ended the year on 128.5 million accounts. Behind them sits an even larger base running on FIS, Fiserv, and TSYS, much of it built on batch mainframe systems never designed for real-time, on-chain money.

So where does the next $100 billion of stablecoin card volume come from? There are two sources.

1. Crypto-native issuers, whose rapid expansion is already visible and should continue.
2. Existing fintechs, neobanks, and brands moving some of their established card volume onto stablecoin rails.

The second source remains nascent but represents the larger prize: bringing substantial non-crypto customers and payment flows into the market. The appeal is twofold: better backend economics by reducing the cost and friction of funding card programs across banks and geographies, and a compelling proposition in weak-currency markets, where users can hold a dollar balance and spend it anywhere Visa or Mastercard is accepted. This opportunity is becoming clearer as providers such as American Express have pulled back from international dollar cards, creating whitespace for stablecoin-native issuers.

This expansion beyond crypto-native users is what begins to turn stablecoin cards from a crypto product into mainstream payments infrastructure. Recent examples include Marqeta’s partnership with Zerohash, which enables fintechs to add stablecoin capabilities to existing card programs without rebuilding the core stack, and Revolut’s launch of EURR, a euro stablecoin integrated directly into its consumer app. Karta shows how the model can extend into traditional wealth channels, distributing its stablecoin-powered card through more than 80 private banks globally, including Morgan Stanley, Raymond James and Itaú.

The addressable market for stablecoin cards is an order of magnitude larger than the one being contested today. Fintech, neobank, and commercial card programs represent ~$5.5 trillion of annual volume. Moving just 1% of that volume would create a $55 billion market. At a 20-basis-point take rate, that is a $110 million revenue pool before accounting for any value captured from float, FX, or treasury services.

Where the stack remains underbuilt

Several missing pieces are starting to emerge:

1. Settlement platforms such as OpenFX and Hercle (an F-Prime portfolio company) provide 24/7 fiat and stablecoin conversion, removing the need to build internal trading, liquidity, and treasury operations. We expect regional winners in corridors where local banking relationships, liquidity, and FX expertise matter most.
2. Crypto-native regulated banks such as Erebor and Pave Bank, combine the charter and BIN sponsorship of a traditional sponsor bank with control of the stablecoin leg. Very few banks can do both today.
3. Credit could be the next big unlock. Credit monetizes better than debit because it adds lending income on top of interchange and other card economics. Most stablecoin cards today remain debit or prepaid, while early credit products are beginning to innovate on underwriting. This could be particularly valuable for global HNWIs whose asset span institutions and jurisdictions. The next opportunity is bringing more of these credit models onto stablecoin rails, potentially combining new underwriting approaches with established networks such as American Express.
4. Stablecoin-native issuer processors. These could become the Marqeta or Galileo of stablecoin cards: making an on-chain balance a native card-funding source by reading it at authorization, orchestrating conversion, and managing settlement behind the scenes. The critical feature is migration: letting existing issuers adopt stablecoin rails without changing BINs, card credentials, network relationships, or the customer experience. No provider has established this position at scale today.

What we’re looking for

The greenfield is beginning to be captured from both directions. Nium acquired Cypher, Marqeta and Galileo are developing stablecoin-backed card functionality, and fintechs such as Flex have raised $70m to put commercial payment flows onto stablecoin infrastructure.

We believe the next battleground is the $5.5 trillion market for fintech, neobank, and brand card programs, where little stablecoin-native infrastructure exists today. The winners will not ask issuers to rebuild around crypto; they will fit stablecoins into existing programs, integrate with incumbent processors and sponsor banks, and abstract the complexity of custody, liquidity, compliance, and settlement.

We want to meet founders who understand stablecoins as a new money rail and are building innovative business models on top of it, from cards and cross-border payments to settlement and treasury. We are also interested in teams rebuilding the credit stack, whether through underwriting, infrastructure, or the capital that funds these new credit products. If you are bringing deep payments expertise in a way that materially improves the existing system, we want to hear from you.

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