As the stablecoin card payments market grows quickly, a tilt toward dollar-based stablecoins is becoming more pronounced.

Cryptopolitan, a blockchain media outlet, reported on Aug. 10 that stablecoin card payments totalled $759 million in July, about 2.5 times higher than a year earlier. USDC and USDT accounted for 84 percent of the total payment amount.

The number of transactions also rose sharply. Stablecoin card payments totalled about 9 million in July, up from about 5.2 million in the same month last year. The average payment amount was about $86.

Stablecoin cards are designed to allow stablecoins to be used at existing card merchants. At the time of payment, crypto is converted into local currency and the merchant receives funds in the same way as a regular card payment. Users can hold stablecoins in a self-custody wallet or deposit them with the card issuer, and can use the service without a bank account.

By currency, the skew toward dollar-based stablecoins was clear. Figures cited by a16z Crypto showed USDC's share rose to 58 percent from about 48 percent a year earlier, while USDT's share expanded to 26 percent from about 7 percent over the same period. Most card payments were centred on digital dollars.

By contrast, euro-based stablecoins were pushed back quickly. As recently as early 2024, about 88 percent of total card payments were settled in EURe, and a significant portion was processed via the Gnosis chain. In July this year, EURe's share fell to about 2 percent.

The landscape for payment processing networks also changed. In early 2024, after Gnosis Pay launched a Visa card directly linked to a self-custody wallet, the Gnosis chain processed most payments. In July this year, Optimism had the largest share at about 29 percent, followed by Solana and Base at about 19 percent each. Gnosis' share shrank to about 2 percent.

The scope of stablecoin card use is also expected to expand. Visa and Bridge, a stablecoin infrastructure company under Stripe, said in March they would expand their stablecoin card programme to more than 100 countries by year-end. If the plan proceeds as scheduled, users will be able to spend stablecoin balances at more than 175 million merchants worldwide that accept Visa.

Expectations and limits are both being cited over the pace of adoption. Haseeb Qureshi (하십 쿠레시) of Dragonfly said in January that stablecoin cards are growing rapidly worldwide. Sil Monnot (실 모노트) of Better Tomorrow Ventures said stablecoin payments lack the rewards and credit incentives that drove the spread of cards. He said the current payment system is not a structure that is particularly inconvenient for most merchants and consumers in advanced economies.

As the stablecoin card market expands quickly, the landscape for currencies and payment networks is being reshaped at the same time. A key point to watch is whether the expansion in countries will translate into actual growth in payment amounts and whether the USDC and USDT-led market structure will become even more entrenched.

Rain is officially one of the fastest growing fintech companies in the world. Stablecoin cards are growing like crazy, everywhere in the world. This is one of the big themes of 2026: crypto becomes enmeshed more deeply into how payments flow through the global economy. For many… https://t.co/bCZGpfpSw3