Crypto Card Market Surges 1,400% to $18B in 2026!

Crypto “payment cards” were supposed to be a niche perk for hardcore holders—something you used once to buy pizza and then forgot about. Instead, they’ve quietly become one of the fastest-growing lanes in digital payments, with spending volume exploding over the last two years.

A new deep-dive from blockchain analytics firm Artemis says monthly crypto card volume rose from about $100 million in early 2023 to more than $1.5 billion by late 2025—an increase of roughly 1,400%. Annualized, that’s now over $18 billion in card-based spending. 

That puts crypto cards in the same weight class as direct peer-to-peer stablecoin transfers, which Artemis estimates at around $19 billion annualized over the same period. The contrast is what really jumps off the page: while card volumes compounded rapidly, P2P stablecoin transfers grew only modestly in comparison. 

Why crypto payment cards are winning

Here’s the simple reason the crypto debit card (and its prepaid/credit variants) is booming: most merchants still don’t accept crypto directly.

So cards do the translation work. You hold a stablecoin balance (or other crypto) in an app, swipe at a store that already accepts Visa or Mastercard, and the crypto-to-fiat conversion happens behind the scenes—meaning the merchant gets paid like any other card transaction. ForkLog’s summary of the Artemis findings calls this the key driver pushing stablecoins beyond exchanges and into day-to-day commerce. 

Artemis frames cards as the “bridge” layer: stablecoins can act as a digital dollar savings account, but cards turn that stored value into spending power at existing checkout terminals—no new merchant software required. 

This matters because stablecoins themselves have grown into a massive base layer. Artemis notes that broader monthly stablecoin payment volume rose from $1.9B (Jan 2023) to $10.2B (Aug 2025), powered by better UX and continued demand in regions with currency instability. 

Visa dominates on-chain card volume

While crypto card products come in many flavors, the plumbing underneath is surprisingly concentrated. Artemis breaks the card stack into three layers—(1) payment networks like Visa and Mastercard, (2) program managers/issuers, and (3) consumer-facing apps—and says Visa captures over 90% of on-chain card volume, largely due to early infrastructure partnerships. 

It’s also worth noting what’s not happening yet: most of today’s card volume still settles through traditional fiat rails. Artemis says the “default” flow is still crypto → fiat conversion before settlement, which is why the merchant experience looks identical to a standard card payment. 

That said, stablecoin-native settlement is starting to show up in real numbers. Artemis cites Visa data indicating stablecoin-linked card spend reached a $3.5B annualized run rate in Visa’s Q4 FY2025—rapid growth, but still a minority share of total crypto card settlement by Artemis’s estimates. 

Reuters adds a broader view from Visa itself: the company’s head of crypto said Visa’s stablecoin settlement volumes hit about a $4.5B annualized run rate, tiny next to Visa’s overall volume but “growing significantly” and driven by stablecoin-linked card providers. Reuters also underscores the bottleneck: there’s still not “merchant acceptance at scale” for spending stablecoins directly, which is exactly why cards remain central. 

The business model shift

Crypto exchanges helped popularize the idea of spending crypto via cards, often using rewards to keep users sticky. But the next wave is increasingly about infrastructure companies building the pipes—and capturing more economics per transaction.

Artemis highlights the rise of “full-stack” issuers that combine program management and issuance (rather than relying on a traditional issuing bank sponsor). It points to firms like Rain and Reap as examples reshaping the issuance layer. 

That trend also shows up in capital markets. Reuters reported that Rain raised $250 million at a $1.95 billion valuation, pitching itself as a way for businesses to issue and manage stablecoin-linked cards and wallets usable anywhere Visa is accepted—while reporting steep growth in active cards and annualized payment volume. 

In other words: the “crypto cards are a gimmick” narrative is getting harder to defend when the companies behind the rails are scaling like serious fintech.

Where adoption is best

Artemis argues the biggest opportunities cluster where stablecoins solve a real problem—think inflation, capital controls, and fragile banking access. It flags India and Argentina as standout markets for different reasons: India for scale and crypto activity, and Argentina for stablecoin usage tied to day-to-day purchasing power protection. 

ForkLog echoes that view, describing crypto cards as especially popular in emerging economies where stablecoins act as a store of value and cards turn that stored value into usable money at local merchants. 

Meanwhile, in the U.S. and EU—where card rails already work well—crypto cards often target a narrower segment: tech-savvy users, crypto investors, freelancers, and businesses that already touch digital assets. 

Conclusion

If stablecoins are “money on the internet,” why not skip cards entirely and pay merchants directly in USDC or USDT? Artemis’ answer is basically: network effects and habit.

Card networks already reach massive global merchant coverage, plus they bundle fraud tools, chargebacks, rewards, and (crucially) credit—features stablecoin payments don’t automatically replicate. That’s why Artemis expects crypto cards to remain the default for everyday retail spending, even as direct stablecoin payments grow in B2B and cross-border contexts.