[DigitalToday reporter Yoonseo Lee (이윤서)] Daily spending on crypto cards hit $36.82 million on July 20, local time, setting a new record.

Blockchain outlet Cryptopolitan reported that PaymentScan data showed spending that day was the highest on record.

The record is hard to view as a one-off spike. Over the past year, daily spending on crypto cards has risen from about $10 million to around three times that level. The figure also stood out because it came during a period when bitcoin and major cryptocurrencies moved sideways without a clear uptrend.

In the payments market, crypto card platform KAST logged $13.64 million in payments that day, topping Hong Kong stablecoin payments firm RedotPay, which posted $12.80 million, to take the No. 1 spot for the first time. The lead changed again after a day. The daily payments market is now led mostly by the KAST and RedotPay card programs, and the gap with other operators is widening.

In the market, the record is seen as showing expanding real-world use rather than speculative demand driven by price gains. Bitcoin and major cryptocurrencies mostly moved sideways, and market sentiment ahead of July 20 stayed in fear territory. Even so, rising card spending suggests users are loading stablecoins and using them to pay for goods and services.

A regulatory overhaul and an expansion of payments infrastructure are in the background. In July 2025, the GENIUS bill was enacted in the United States, giving stablecoin issuers a federal-level framework of rules for the first time. Big players that had been cautious due to regulatory uncertainty are gradually moving closer to the market. Visa also provides its payments network to both KAST and RedotPay, creating a structure that allows cards to be used at about 150 million merchants.

The demand base is more pronounced outside the United States. In many regions, it is hard to open a U.S. bank account, and stablecoins are effectively serving as checking accounts. KAST and RedotPay are absorbing demand for dollars that can be held and spent without a U.S. bank, and the number of such users is rising regardless of whether bitcoin climbs.

Still, the prevailing view is that KAST’s move to No. 1 is closer to an incentive effect than a shift in market power. KAST is running a points campaign ahead of a token generation event scheduled for the fourth quarter, and the points add rewards to payments. That has raised the possibility that users brought transactions forward to earn points, inflating one-day payment volumes.

If KAST had overtaken RedotPay in real demand as well, it should have kept the lead after 24 hours, but cumulative volume is still led by RedotPay. The July 20 surge can be read less as a change in who leads the market and more as an example of incentives lifting short-term payment volumes.

That narrows the market’s next focus to two points. The key test is whether rising use of crypto cards becomes a sustained spending habit beyond the effect of short-term campaigns, and how much clearer stablecoin regulation and the Visa payments network further expand the real payments market.