Stablecoins push crypto card volume 230%; Visa processes 90%

Monthly payment volume on crypto-linked debit and credit cards rose about 230% year-over-year to $7.8 billion, a market research report showed. Analysts attributed the gain to wider access to stablecoins as a payment rail and estimated that Visa processed roughly 90% of crypto-card transactions through partnerships with onchain-native firms such as Jupiter Global.

Jupiter Global is a payments project launched by the team behind the Jupiter decentralized exchange on the Solana network. Crypto exchange OKX introduced a stablecoin payments card for European customers in January 2026 that operates on the Mastercard network. Several crypto protocols and platforms are building the infrastructure and user interfaces that let cards convert stablecoins at the point of sale or settle transactions through traditional card rails.

Transaction-level data from OKX for January shows grocery purchases accounted for about 26% of card volume, restaurants about 18%, and online shopping about 13%. OKX wrote, “When crypto pays for lunch, payment adoption is real,” and described those categories as the largest shares of card activity for the month.

In March, Visa and Bridge, a fintech owned by Stripe, announced plans to roll out stablecoin-linked payment cards in more than 100 countries. The initial launch will support 18 countries, including Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru and Chile, with planned expansions to the Asia-Pacific, Africa and Middle East regions by the end of 2026.

The market report noted, “Crypto card adoption has rapidly accelerated in 2026 due to growing access to stablecoins as a payment rail through crypto cards. In other words, more people can now spend stablecoins like fiat by using crypto cards, further driving adoption.”

Mastercard and Visa continue to process the majority of crypto card transactions even as crypto-native products increase. Firms that issue cards are linking wallets and stablecoins to traditional payment networks so consumers can use token balances for routine purchases such as groceries and meals.