Crypto Card Spending Surges Past $1 Billion as Stablecoins Fund Everyday Purchases — BigGo Finance

Crypto-linked card spending more than tripled over the past year, topping $1 billion in July as dollar-backed stablecoins increasingly funded routine consumer purchases such as groceries, ride-hailing and food delivery, according to data from Paymentscan cited by venture capital firm a16z.

Stablecoins backed 70% of the more than 10 million transactions tracked during the month, with USDC accounting for 50.8% of July volume and USDT contributing another 20.3%. A year earlier, those shares stood at roughly 48% and 7%, respectively. The average payment climbed to about $86 per transaction from $59 over the same period, a combination of higher transaction counts and larger individual purchases that signals a shift away from occasional crypto off-ramps toward everyday spending.

“The real measure of crypto’s progress is not simply how many people own digital assets, but how useful those assets become in everyday life,” said Thomas Gregory, VP of Payments and Fiat at Binance. “Stablecoin-funded cards are one example of how digital assets are becoming more deeply embedded in everyday life, giving users greater flexibility in how they spend, move and access their money.”

Crypto cards allow users to fund purchases with stablecoins or other digital assets while merchants continue receiving local currency through existing payment networks. Depending on the product, funds may be held with the card issuer or in a self-custody wallet before being converted at checkout.

This means stablecoins are not necessarily replacing Visa or Mastercard at the point of sale. In many cases, they are becoming another funding source for cards that still operate through those networks. Visa said in June that it had more than 160 stablecoin-linked card programs live or in development globally. StraitsX, a Visa partner that helps crypto firms launch cards, said transaction volume on its card infrastructure increased 40-fold between the fourth quarters of 2024 and 2025.

Market Concentration and Data Caveats

The headline growth figures carry an important limitation: tracked activity remains concentrated among a small number of providers. RedotPay generated $395.1 million of July volume, EtherFi recorded $100.3 million and KAST contributed $89.6 million. Together, the three platforms represented about 77% of the tracked total.

Note: Paymentscan figures for RedotPay are self-reported rather than directly observed onchain. EtherFi’s figure represents card purchases and excludes roughly $30 million of fiat transfers.

EtherFi CEO Mike Silagadze confirmed that the platform’s purchase volume had been below $10 million in July 2025, just two months after the product launched. Most deposits are in USDC or USDT, while fiat transfers account for about 20% of activity.

RedotPay said its customer base increased more than 33% over the past six months to more than 8 million. “Our customers use stablecoins to benefit their daily lives by protecting their savings from inflation while enabling them to purchase everyday goods and services,” a spokesperson said.

Dollar-backed stablecoins have also rapidly displaced some earlier alternatives in the tracked market. The euro-backed EURe stablecoin accounted for as much as 88% of tracked card spending in early 2024 but represented less than 2% in July.

From Savings to Everyday Spending

Operator data from Latin America provides the clearest evidence that consumers are using these cards for routine purchases rather than large crypto conversions. Oobit said active Brazilian users spend about $400 across 20 transactions per month, with grocery stores accounting for 35% of its reported regional activity. In Argentina, USDT funded 72% of Oobit payments, while food purchases represented 41% of transactions.

“Stablecoins are increasingly doing two jobs at once: helping people preserve value, then letting them use that same balance for everyday expenses,” said Eduardo Prota, Oobit’s managing director for Brazil and head of Latin America.

Binance reported that the average number of users of its card in Brazil increased 53% between its launch quarter and the second quarter of 2026, while average volume rose 80%. Leading uses included ride-hailing, food delivery, groceries, restaurants and online subscriptions.

Kraken reported a similar pattern. Weekly payments on its Krak Card more than doubled over the past year to 8.3 per user. Retail and store purchases accounted for 59.3% of spending, while half of transactions were funded using an asset other than the card’s euro or pound denomination.

Growth also appears stronger in lower-income markets. StraitsX said gross transaction value rose about 600% in lower-GDP markets between March 2025 and February 2026, compared with 150% in higher-GDP markets. Food and retail were the leading spending categories.

“What stands out most is how ordinary the spending has become,” said StraitsX CEO Tianwei Liu. “The underlying stablecoin balance is increasingly just another way to fund a familiar card experience.”

A Divergence at Larger Platforms

The shift toward stablecoin-funded spending is not uniform across the industry. Coinbase said USDC represented about 16% of combined transaction volume across its credit and debit cards, even though customers held roughly $20 billion of USDC across Coinbase products, up 44% over the past year. Active Coinbase One cardholders spent about $3,000 a month, a figure that includes purchases funded through USDC, other crypto assets and bank transfers.

“Stablecoins are becoming the internet’s payment rail, and this is increasingly reflected across our entire product suite,” a Coinbase spokesperson said.

The discrepancy suggests that crypto-native card providers can see stablecoins dominate spending, while larger financial platforms still hold substantially more stablecoin value than users spend through their cards. For the sector, the next test is whether everyday transaction growth broadens beyond a few providers and becomes a durable use case across mainstream payment products.