[DigitalToday reporter Yoonseo Lee] Crypto card payment processing rose to $12.5 billion, hitting a record high. On Oct. 6, Bitcoin Magazine reported that the figure was up 140 percent from the start of the year, based on paymentscan.xyz tallies.

The market sees the expansion as being driven by stablecoins rapidly taking root as payment infrastructure and by growing demand for cheaper, faster cross-border transactions.

The research firm The Kobeissi Letter viewed the wider use of stablecoins as the key driver of payment growth. It also called crypto cards a "future milestone for crypto adoption". That means use is expanding beyond simple holding to being used as an actual means of payment.

In-person payment methods also supported the market’s expansion. As demand for QR code-based payments increased, the number of active cards at Jupiter Spend, one of the on-chain card providers, rose 55 percent from the previous quarter. It is seen as a sign of the payment ecosystem expanding because actual usage is rising rather than just the number of cards issued.

Against this backdrop, major players are also entering the crypto card market one after another. Fold Holdings said it began issuing the "Fold Bitcoin Credit Card" early this year to some users on its waiting list. The company plans to broaden access gradually over the next few weeks to months.

The Fold Bitcoin Credit Card runs on the Visa network, and Stripe Issuing provides the issuance infrastructure. It can be used at 175 million merchants. It offers 1.5 percent bitcoin cashback by default, rising to as much as 4 percent when usage-based rewards and partner benefits are added. Users who repay their card balances in bitcoin also receive an additional 0.5 percent accrual.

Another company, Aven, unveiled a different model. Its "Aven Bitcoin Visa Card," introduced at Bitcoin Conference 2026 in Las Vegas, is designed to let users borrow up to $1 million by pledging bitcoin as collateral without selling it. Interest rates start at 7.99 percent a year, and repayment terms run up to 10 years. BitGo holds the bitcoin collateral, and Coastal Community Bank issues the card.

The crypto card market is showing a trend of expanding beyond simple payment functions into rewards, collateral-backed loans and cross-border payment methods. Going forward, the key points to watch are how much faster stablecoin-based payments spread and whether an expansion in real-world use translates into growth in card activation.