coindesk.com
Crypto card spending more than tripled over the past year, reaching $1.04 billion in July, driven largely by dollar-backed stablecoins and increasingly ordinary purchases such as groceries, ride-hailing and food delivery.
Dollar-backed stablecoins funded 70% of the more than 10 million tracked transactions, according to Paymentscan data, cited by venture capital firm a16z. USDC accounted for 50.8% of July volume and USDT another 20.3%, compared with roughly 48% and 7%, respectively, a year earlier.
Monthly volume, meanwhile, rose to $306 million in July 2025, according to the data. And the average payment rose to about $86 per transaction, up from $59 year over year. Data for August is not yet complete.
The growth points to an important shift in how consumers use stablecoins. They have become popular as a way to hold digital dollars and move money across borders.
“The real measure of crypto’s progress is not simply how many people own digital assets, but how useful those assets become in everyday life,” Thomas Gregory, VP of Payments and Fiat at Binance, told CoinDesk.
“Stablecoin-funded cards are one example of how digital assets are becoming more deeply embedded in everyday life, giving users greater flexibility in how they spend, move and access their money.”
Crypto cards let users spend stablecoins and other assets through existing payment networks without requiring merchants to accept cryptocurrencies directly. Depending on the product, users deposit funds with the issuer or keep them in a self-custody wallet, and the balance is converted at checkout so the merchant receives it in their local currency.
This means stablecoins are not necessarily replacing Visa or Mastercard at checkout. Increasingly, they are becoming another way to fund the cards running over those networks.
Visa said in June that it had more than 160 stablecoin-linked card programs live or in development globally. StraitsX, a Visa partner that helps other crypto firms launch cards, said transaction volume on its card infrastructure increased 40-fold between the fourth quarters of 2024 and 2025.
However, that data comes with an important caveat.
The market the data tracked remains concentrated. RedotPay generated $395.1 million of July volume, followed by EtherFi at $100.3 million and KAST at $89.6 million. Together, the three platforms accounted for about 77% of the tracked total. Paymentscan’s RedotPay figures are self-reported rather than observed onchain.
Ether.fi CEO Mike Silagadze confirmed to CoinDesk that the platform’s $100.3 million represents card purchase volume, but excludes roughly $30 million of fiat transfers. Purchase volume was below $10 million in July 2025, two months after the product launched, he said.
