Stablecoin Card Spending Tops 10.9 Billion USD as July Becomes First Billion-Dollar Month

Cumulative stablecoin card spending has surpassed 10.9 billion USD worldwide, according to Paymentscan data cited by payment provider RedotPay on August 25. The milestone comes after July 2026 set a record as the first month in which stablecoin card spending exceeded 1 billion USD — a striking acceleration for a category that processed roughly 60,000 USD per month just three years ago.

How stablecoin cards work

Stablecoin cards let customers fund a payment credential using assets such as USDC or USDT. The provider converts the stablecoin into the merchant’s local currency, allowing the transaction to settle over existing Visa or Mastercard infrastructure. Merchants receive a conventional card payment and never handle cryptocurrency directly, which means stablecoin balances become spendable at stores and online services that do not otherwise accept digital assets.

Paymentscan recorded approximately 1.04 billion USD in July card spending, compared with 339.4 million USD one year earlier — a more than threefold increase over twelve months, according to an a16z crypto analysis of the dataset.

As with any young dataset, definitions matter. An onchain-focused breakdown cited by a16z placed July volume near 759 million USD across almost nine million purchases, while Paymentscan’s broader overview includes additional offchain feeds supplied by card providers. The difference does not make either figure wrong; it means readers should check whether a total includes provider-supplied offchain data or only transactions visible on supported blockchain networks.

Dollar stablecoins dominate

USDC accounted for approximately 58 percent of onchain card spending tracked by a16z in July, while USDT represented roughly 26 percent. Euro-backed stablecoins, which previously held a larger share of card activity, declined to about 2 percent of the tracked volume.

The average transaction in the onchain dataset was approximately 86 USD — a figure that supports the argument that stablecoin cards are increasingly used for ordinary purchases such as subscriptions, groceries, and travel rather than niche or one-off spending.

Scale still matters, though. More than 20 trillion USD is expected to be spent using traditional cards during 2026, according to data cited by RedotPay. Stablecoin card volume remains a rounding error against the conventional card industry — but its growth curve is what has the attention of payment networks.

Networks keep building

Visa says stablecoin-linked cards can now reach more than 175 million merchant locations without requiring merchants to accept stablecoins directly. In March, Visa and Bridge announced plans to expand stablecoin-linked cards into more than 100 countries. Mastercard has added stablecoin settlement options and partnerships serving Africa, the Middle East, and other emerging markets.

The infrastructure buildout has coincided with easier deposits, improved fiat conversion, and integrations with mobile wallets — the practical friction points that determine whether a payment method gets everyday use or stays a crypto-community curiosity.

RedotPay’s forecast: 50 billion USD by 2028

RedotPay predicts the industry will process its next 10 billion USD in eight months, compared with roughly three years for the first 10 billion. It also expects stablecoin cards to reach 50 billion USD in annualized spending by 2028. That figure is a company forecast, not a confirmed projection from Paymentscan, Visa, or Mastercard.

The Hong Kong-based company reported more than eight million users and annualized payment volume exceeding 14 billion USD, although that number includes account top-ups alongside completed card purchases. RedotPay did not provide audited financial documentation for those figures, so they should be treated as company-reported metrics.

RedotPay co-founder Jonathan Chan said Latin America currently has the highest adoption and growth potential, followed by Africa. He attributed growth to payment needs, stablecoin availability, stronger fiat conversion infrastructure, and clearer regulations — the combination that has historically driven stablecoin adoption in markets with volatile local currencies.

Why the milestone matters

Stablecoins have already proven their traction in trading, settlement, and treasury use, but retail payments have long been the sector’s promised land. The 10.9 billion USD cumulative figure suggests consumer spending is finally compounding rather than crawling: from 60,000 USD monthly three years ago to a billion-dollar month in July.

The gap between 1 billion per month and the 20 trillion USD traditional card market remains enormous, and forecasts from providers deserve skepticism. But with Visa and Mastercard both investing in stablecoin rails, and with dollar stablecoins consolidating their dominance of card flows, the direction of travel is difficult to dispute — stablecoins are quietly becoming a retail payment layer riding on top of the card networks that once ignored them.