Stablecoin card spending jumps 2.5x to $759M in July

Crypto payment card spending rose 2.5 times from a year earlier to $759 million in July, supported by nearly 9 million purchases settled mainly through dollar-backed stablecoins, according to Paymentscan data cited by a16z crypto.

The monthly total climbed from less than $1 million in October 2023, when Paymentscan began tracking card activity across blockchains, to more than three-quarters of a billion dollars. Purchase counts reached nearly 9 million in July from about 5.2 million in the same month last year. Those two measures put the average purchase value at roughly $86, the report said.

A methodology caveat sits over the headline number. Paymentscan's dataset covers on-chain activity it can connect to individual card programs, and it handles its largest tracked issuer differently. RedotPay, the top contributor by volume, self-reported its spending rather than having transactions observed directly on-chain. A16z flagged the distinction in its methodology, so RedotPay's figures depend on information supplied by the company.

USDC and USDT Carry 84% of Card Volume

USDC handled about 58% of July card spending, while USDT took 26%, Paymentscan data showed. A year earlier those shares stood near 48% and 7%, so USDT recorded the larger gain over the period. The two dollar-pegged tokens together processed 84% of tracked volume.

The figures align with separate Visa data showing USDC has taken a large share of payment-related stablecoin activity. USDC accounted for roughly $1.21 trillion of the $1.79 trillion in adjusted stablecoin transfers during June, with USDT at about $576 billion, according to Visa's on-chain analytics dashboard. Adjusted transfer volume rose 63% from May and 125% from a year earlier, even as the stablecoin market's total value declined by $7.7 billion, crypto.news previously reported.

Euro-backed tokens lost the early lead in the card segment. EURe, the euro-denominated token, settled close to 88% of card spending in early 2024, much of it through Gnosis; by July its share had fallen to about 2%, a16z said. Card issuers added support for more blockchains and dollar-backed assets over the same stretch. Paymentscan's figures put USDC's share up about 10 percentage points over the year and USDT's up about 19 points.

Optimism, an Ethereum layer-2 network, processed about 29% of tracked card spending in July, ahead of Solana and Base, each near 19%, Paymentscan data showed. Gnosis carried roughly 2% after serving as the main settlement chain during the market's early stage. Gnosis Pay helped produce that initial concentration with what a16z described as the first Visa card connected directly to a self-custodial wallet. More issuers entered the market and settlement spread across networks offering different payment and wallet infrastructure. Optimism and Base together processed close to half the measured volume.

Payment providers have also built cards that settle stablecoin transactions on Solana. Solayer introduced a Visa card in May that lets customers spend USDC from the Solana-based Solayer InfiniSVM network. The launch followed Visa and Bridge opening their stablecoin card program in 18 countries. Base, the Coinbase-built Ethereum layer-2, matched Solana's 19% share in the Paymentscan dataset.

Crypto cards convert stablecoin balances into the merchant's local fiat currency at checkout and route the payment through an established card network. Merchants receive the transaction like any standard card payment, so they never have to accept or manage crypto directly, a16z said. Custodial programs hold the stablecoins for the cardholder; self-custodial products let customers keep control through an on-chain wallet until funds are spent. Customers can use the product wherever the supporting card network operates; the issuer handles conversion and settlement. Some programs double as access to dollar-denominated balances without requiring a conventional bank account.

Morph introduced another self-custodial model in August, aimed at direct business payments rather than card spending. The non-custodial platform lets businesses and freelancers receive USDC and USDT straight into their wallets through invoices and payment links.

Tracked card programs used Visa almost exclusively, according to a16z. Even at $759 million, crypto cards remain small beside card networks that process trillions of dollars each month.

The GENIUS Act and Visa's Multi-Coin Push

For U.S. users, a crypto card transaction combines a conventional card payment with a stablecoin issued under the GENIUS Act, signed into law in July 2025. The law set federal standards for payment stablecoin issuers, including reserve and redemption requirements. In February the OCC proposed rules to implement parts of the statute, covering reserve composition, liquidity, redemption procedures, capital treatment and federal oversight of approved issuers. Mastercard, meanwhile, has tested single-audit stablecoin compliance with Borderless.xyz.

Visa keeps its network open to several stablecoins rather than committing to a single token. On the company's July 28 earnings call, CEO Ryan McInerney described the strategy as "multi-coin, multi-chain" and said Visa's role was "not to pick winners." The card company also supports Open USD, a planned stablecoin backed by a consortium of more than 140 companies, and maintains connections with existing tokens and settlement products. Visa introduced a platform in July that gives banks and fintech companies, along with crypto firms, access to stablecoin minting, burning, storage and transfer tools.

Earlier in 2026, Visa and Stripe-owned Bridge announced plans to offer stablecoin-backed cards in more than 100 countries by the end of the year. Their program lets customers spend stablecoin balances at more than 175 million Visa merchant locations. Lead Bank supports on-chain settlement for the cards.