Why Is Crypto Card Spending Growing So Quickly?
Crypto card spending increased roughly 2.5 times over the past year to reach about $759 million in July, with dollar-backed stablecoins funding most transactions and consumers increasingly using the cards for groceries, transportation, food delivery and other routine purchases.
Nearly 9 million transactions were tracked during the month, with USDC and USDT together accounting for about 84% of activity, according to Paymentscan data cited by venture capital firm a16z. USDC funded about 58% of July volume, up from roughly 48% a year earlier, while USDT’s share climbed to about 26% from about 7%.
The average payment also increased to about $86 from $59 year over year. That combination of higher transaction counts and larger purchases suggests crypto cards are moving beyond occasional withdrawals or conversions into a more regular spending tool.
“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.
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.
Are Stablecoins Replacing Visa And Mastercard?
The spending growth does not mean stablecoins are replacing traditional card networks. In many cases, they are becoming another funding source for cards that still operate through Visa or Mastercard infrastructure.
Visa said in June that more than 130 stablecoin-linked card programs were operating across more than 50 countries. StraitsX, which helps crypto companies launch Visa-linked cards, reported a 40-fold increase in transaction volume on its card infrastructure between the fourth quarters of 2024 and 2025.
The attraction for users is straightforward: stablecoins can serve as digital dollar balances while still being usable at merchants that have no direct cryptocurrency payment system. That allows consumers to retain dollar-linked assets until the point of sale rather than converting balances into a bank account first.
“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 General Manager for Brazil and Head of LATAM.
Investor Takeaway
Stablecoin adoption is increasingly moving from holding and transfers into payments. The opportunity for card issuers is not to replace existing payment networks, but to make stablecoin balances spendable through infrastructure consumers and merchants already use.
What Are Crypto Card Users Actually Buying?
Operator data suggests the growth is increasingly tied to ordinary consumer spending rather than large crypto conversions.
Oobit said active users in Brazil spend about $400 across 20 transactions each 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 Brazilian card increased 53% between its launch quarter and the second quarter of 2026, while average volume rose 80%. Common uses included ride-hailing, food delivery, groceries, restaurants and online subscriptions.
Kraken reported similar behavior. 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 with assets other than the card’s euro or pound denomination.
How Concentrated Is The Crypto Card Market?
The headline growth figures carry an important limitation because 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 tracked activity. Paymentscan’s figures for RedotPay are self-reported rather than directly observed onchain.
EtherFi CEO Mike Silagadze said its $100.3 million figure represented card purchases and excluded roughly $30 million of fiat transfers. Purchase volume had been below $10 million in July 2025, two months after the product launched. RedotPay, meanwhile, said its customer base grew more than 33% over six months to exceed 8 million.
Growth also appears stronger in some lower-income markets. StraitsX reported that gross transaction value increased about 600% in lower-GDP markets between March 2025 and February 2026, compared with 150% in higher-GDP markets, with food and retail leading spending categories.
Usage is less stablecoin-heavy on every large platform. 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.
The difference suggests crypto-native card providers can see stablecoins dominate spending while larger financial platforms still hold much more stablecoin value than users spend. 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.
