Stable coins drive daily payments, cryptocurrency card consumption hits record US$759 million

Crypto card spending climbs as consumer transactions surge

USDC and USDT accounted for 84% of crypto card spending in July

In July 2026, crypto card spending reached a record high of US$759 million, an increase of about 2.5 times from US$306 million a year ago.

A total of nearly 9 million crypto card purchase transactions were completed in July, with an average transaction size of approximately US$86.

USDC accounted for 58% of crypto card spending in July, while USDT accounted for 26%, showing the dominance of the digital dollar.

Three platforms, RedotPay, EtherFi and KAST, contributed approximately 77% of the total US$759 million in cryptocard spending tracked in July.

In July 2026, monthly spending on crypto payment cards reached US$759 million, the highest level since Paymentscan tracked it in October 2023. This milestone shows that balances associated with blockchain are increasingly being used for daily transactions through card networks.

According to the a16z encryption report based on Paymentscan data, July expenditures increased by approximately 2.5 times from US$306 million a year ago. When the dataset was first established, expenditures were still below $1 million, a sign of how quickly the payment category has expanded over three years.

Spending on crypto cards has climbed, and consumer transactions have surged.

The number of transactions has grown in tandem with spending, further confirming the trend of wider consumer use. Nearly 9 million encryption card purchases were completed in July, compared with approximately 5.2 million in July 2025.

The average transaction volume was approximately $86, indicating that activity was spread among smaller purchases rather than concentrated on large transfers. This model brings stablecoin spending closer to day-to-day business, although the area is still small compared to traditional card networks.

RedotPay remains the largest independent project tracked by Paymentscan, with spending reaching $395.1 million in July, up from $266.4 million a year ago.

EtherFi recorded US$100.3 million, while KAST recorded approximately US$89.6 million. The three together accounted for approximately 77% of the total reported US$759 million.

However, the dataset contains different reporting methods used by different projects. Paymentscan mainly tracks blockchain transactions, but some of the data also comes from issuers that use offline reporting. For example, RedotPay's data is self-reported. Some encryption card structures also rely on bulk settlement or account recharge, which may not directly correspond to merchant expenditures.

The network composition has also changed significantly. Gnosis handled most of the tracking activity in early 2024, but its share had dropped to about 2% by July 2026.

Optimism leads with about 29% of spending, with Solana and Base accounting for about 19% each. This distribution shows that activity is being dispersed across multiple blockchain networks rather than concentrated in a single system.

USDC and USDT accounted for 84% of crypto card spending in July

The shift in monetary composition to dollar-backed stablecoin assets is more significant. USDC accounted for approximately 58% of July spending, while USDT accounted for 26%.

In contrast, euro-backed EURe accounted for approximately 88% of tracking spending at the beginning of 2024, but its share had dropped to approximately 2% by July 2026, highlighting the growing dominance of the digital dollar in crypto-card payments.

As a result, most users still actually pay in digital dollars, while merchants continue to receive traditional local currencies through existing payment infrastructure. This model connects blockchain balances to a standard checkout system, eliminating the need for merchants to directly accept cryptocurrency.

At the same time, Visa reported that the volume of card transactions associated with stablecoins in 2025 was approximately US$5.2 billion, a year-on-year increase of 319%. The company currently supports more than 130 stablecoin-related projects in more than 50 countries, further expanding access to blockchain-funded payments.

Visa also expects that the number of projects it supports will roughly double by 2026. In addition, its cooperation with Stripe's Bridge aims to launch stablecoin-related cards in more than 100 countries by the end of the year.

Despite rapid expansion, stablecoin-linked cards still account for a small proportion of global payments. Visa's total payment processing volume in 2025 will be approximately US$14.2 trillion, which shows the scale of this emerging field. Its US$5.2 billion stableco-related card activity only accounted for approximately 0.04% of the total. Still, record spending levels in July suggest that blockchain-funded cards are becoming a more measurable part of daily payment activities.