Stablecoins were supposed to bypass credit cards, but now Visa is winning crypto card payments

A notable development has hit the crypto markets. Stablecoins were built on the premise that removing intermediaries between sender and recipient would erode the relevance of legacy payment networks, but the fastest-growing consumer stablecoin product depends entirely on one. Data reported by The Kobeissi Letter shows crypto-card spending reached roughly $600 million per month, with $7. 2 billion in cumulative on-chain card volume across 24 million transactions and 1.

Approximately 90% of those transactions were processed through Visa, with USDT accounting for 62. 5% of settled volume. Jupiter Global, whose USDC-backed card runs on Visa rails, grew 660% month-over-month in the same dataset.

Market Dynamics

An infographic showing Visa processes approximately 90% of crypto-card transactions, with monthly spending at $600 million and cumulative on-chain volume at $7. Jupiter Card is a Visa debit card backed by a user's USDC balance, accepted wherever Visa is accepted. Users deposit USDC, which converts into US dollars behind the card, and merchants receive ordinary fiat, with the blockchain never touching the point of sale.

Bridge-enabled stablecoin-linked Visa cards went live in 18 countries in March, with planned expansion to more than 100 countries by year-end, covering 175 million Visa merchant locations. Phantom and MetaMask are among the crypto platforms already distributing cards of this type. Visa's stablecoin settlement pilot separately hit a $7 billion annualized run rate as of Apr.

29, up 50% quarter-over-quarter and now operating across nine blockchains, still a rounding error against Visa's FY2025 volume of $14. 2 trillion, but moving fast enough to show direction. Why Visa wins the consumer layer Stablecoins expand the pool of balances that can fund the card network at checkout, leaving the acceptance layer untouched.

Market Impact

Visa's durable assets include merchant acceptance across over 175 million locations, embedded compliance relationships, fraud tooling, chargeback infrastructure, and consumer behavior trained over decades. What Visa lacked was a way to tap into crypto-native wallet balances without forcing users out of their familiar UX or merchants to accept new payment methods, and crypto cards solve that problem cleanly for Visa. For the original pitch that stablecoins would route consumers around card rails, as crypto did with correspondent banks for cross-border transfers, this outcome is the uncomfortable version.

Holding USDC and tapping Visa converts stablecoin balances into spendable money at scale, but Visa still sits between the user's dollar-denominated wallet and the merchant, capturing interchange, data, and the consumer relationship at every transaction. McKinsey estimates B2B stablecoin payments at around $226 billion annually, roughly 60% of global stablecoin payment volume, while stablecoin-linked card spending reached $4. 5 billion in 2025, up 673% from 2024.

A Colombian supplier pays in USDC, settling entirely on-chain, while a consumer buying coffee routes through a Visa terminal. Stablecoins damage bank prefunding, FX intermediaries, and correspondent banking far more directly. Consumer checkout Stablecoins stay hidden behind card UX Direct crypto payment apps Visa, Mastercard Merchant acceptance Merchants do not need to accept USDC/USDT directly Crypto-native POS systems Existing card networks Cross-border settlement Faster, cheaper dollar movement Correspondent banks, remittance intermediaries Stablecoin issuers, wallets, fintechs Bank deposits Users can hold dollar balances outside banks Commercial banks, EM deposit bases Stablecoin issuers, exchanges FX corridors Stablecoins reduce need for local-currency conversion FX brokers, prefunding desks Dollar stablecoins What scale looks like The current $7.

This shift continues to shape the digital-asset landscape, with analysts examining its near-term effects.