Crypto Card Spending Hits $759M Monthly: The 2026 Trends Driving Stablecoin Payments

Dollar-Backed Stablecoins Overtake Euro-Backed Ones

The most significant structural shift is the collapse of euro-backed stablecoins and the dominance of their dollar-backed counterparts. In early 2024, euro-backed stablecoins like EURe held 88% of the market. By July 2026, EURe's share had fallen to just 2% .

Today, USDC accounts for 58% of crypto card spending volume, and USDT accounts for 26% . Together, dollar-denominated stablecoins represent 84% of all card spend. This mirrors the broader stablecoin market, where USDC now carries roughly 70% of adjusted on-chain transaction volume, according to Visa's on-chain analytics .

Blockchain Landscape: Optimism Leads, Solana and Base Tie

Different blockchains process very different shares of crypto card volume. The data from Paymentscan and a16z shows the following distribution as of July 2026 :

Optimism holds the largest share, while Solana and Base are neck-and-neck. Gnosis, once a significant player during the euro-stablecoin era, has been reduced to a marginal presence . On Solana specifically, monthly crypto card spending hit a record $69.5 million in July, led by the KAST card platform, which captured 89.7% of Solana's card volume .

Leading Card Programs: RedotPay Dominates

• RedotPay is the clear market leader, handling more than half of all tracked crypto card volume .
• EtherFi (ETHFI), KAST, and Karta have steadily grown their market share since late 2025 .

Stablecoin neobank inflows also crossed $1 billion in monthly flows for the first time in July, a milestone for the broader ecosystem .

Visa's Dominant Role: 130+ Programs Across 50+ Countries

Visa has emerged as the primary payments infrastructure behind this growth. The company now operates more than 130 stablecoin-linked card programs across over 50 countries . Visa's own corporate documents confirm this figure, and the company expects that number to roughly double in 2026 .

Visa has also expanded its stablecoin settlement pilot to nine blockchains and partnered with Bridge (a Stripe company) to bring stablecoin cards to over 100 countries . The pilot reached a $7 billion annualized run rate in April 2026 after adding five new blockchains: Arc, Base, Canton, Polygon, and Tempo . Beyond cards, Visa has extended USDC settlement to U.S. banks and integrated stablecoin into its core treasury and settlement infrastructure .

Broader Implications

• Stablecoins are moving from trading to everyday payments. Crypto cards are the main on-ramp for using stablecoins at merchants, circumventing the need for merchants to directly accept crypto . Annualized spending on stablecoin-funded cards reached roughly $18 billion by late 2025, rivaling peer-to-peer stablecoin transfers (~$19 billion) .

• Global access to dollar-denominated accounts. Non-US residents can now hold and spend digital dollars (USDC/USDT) via Visa cards without needing a traditional U.S. bank account. This is particularly significant in Latin America, Africa, and parts of Asia, where the Visa-Bridge partnership initially launched across 18 markets before expanding .

• Regulatory tailwind. The passage of stablecoin legislation in 2025 has been cited as a catalyst for the acceleration in card spending volumes, providing clearer legal ground for issuers and users .

• The trajectory suggests $1B/month is near. With cumulative spending approaching $11 billion and monthly run-rates growing at 19% month-over-month, the category appears on track to exceed $1 billion in monthly spend in the near future .