Why Are Stablecoin Cards Gaining Traction?
Stablecoin-based cards are moving from crypto-native use into everyday payments, with retail spend rising about 105% to 106% over the past year, according to John Timoney, head of strategic partnerships at Rain.
The cards allow users to spend stablecoins such as Tether and USDC directly from digital wallets through physical or virtual cards. In many cases, merchants still receive fiat, meaning retailers do not need to manage crypto settlement, volatility, or wallet infrastructure.
Timoney said stablecoin cards could soon account for double-digit percentages of all cards in some Latin American markets, where demand for dollar-linked payment tools has been stronger than in many developed markets.
How Is Rain Using Existing Card Networks?
Rain is not trying to replace global card networks. Instead, the company is using them to make stablecoin balances spendable across existing merchant networks.
Rain recently became a Mastercard Principal Member, allowing it to offer credit and prepaid cards on the Mastercard network. The company and Mastercard are also exploring on-chain settlement for some card program flows using regulated stablecoins.
“The card networks over decades have rolled up hundreds of millions of merchants,” Timoney said. “Rain explicitly did not want to reinvent the wheel.”
That approach avoids the adoption problem that has limited direct crypto payments. Merchants can keep accepting card transactions as usual, while stablecoin rails work behind the scenes.
Investor Takeaway
Why Does Stablecoin Settlement Matter?
The strongest economics may sit behind the consumer experience. Rain says stablecoin settlement allows card programs to settle during weekends and holidays, cutting trapped capital by more than 40% in some cases.
Traditional card programs often need to pre-fund obligations or rely on network credit when banking rails are closed. Stablecoins can move outside bank cut-off times, giving issuers more flexibility over capital use.
That can improve card economics by freeing capital that would otherwise sit idle. It may also support richer rewards, lower working-capital strain, and faster settlement for issuers operating in markets with less efficient banking rails.
For Latin America, this matters because dollar-linked stablecoins already serve as a practical tool for savings, payments, and cross-border activity. Card access turns those balances into spendable money without requiring users to manually off-ramp first.
Investor Takeaway
What Could Slow Adoption?
Stablecoin cards still account for less than 1% of global card spend, according to Consensys executive Ray Hernandez. Current users remain mostly crypto-native consumers who already hold assets on-chain.
Mainstream adoption will depend on easier on-ramps, local payment infrastructure, and products that hide network fees and blockchain complexity from users. Mastercard executive Christian Rau said most consumers do not care whether a payment is on-chain; they expect a card experience that is fast, safe, and familiar.
“Other than the people in this room, nobody says ‘oh, I just did an onchain payment’,” Rau said. “The normal benchmark these days is you have a card sitting on your iPhone or on an Android. You tap it, the money is gone.”
The debate also cuts to the core of crypto payments. GoMining CEO Mark Zalan argued that stablecoins and card networks add intermediaries to payments, while Timoney and Rau said card networks provide chargebacks, merchant risk controls, and consumer protections that users already expect.
“Payment is more than moving money from A to B,” Rau said. “From a consumer perspective, the experience of payment is interoperability, safety and security.”
