Monthly spending on crypto linked payment cards reached $759 million in July, roughly 2.5 times higher than a year earlier and up from less than $1 million when the venture firm a16z began tracking the category in October 2023, according to Paymentscan data published by a16z crypto.
Nearly 9 million purchases ran through crypto cards in July, up from about 5.2 million a year ago, and the spending is shifting decisively toward dollar backed stablecoins. USDC now handles roughly 58 percent of card spend and USDT another 26 percent, up from about 48 percent and 7 percent respectively a year ago. Euro backed stablecoins, which made up 88 percent of crypto card volume in early 2024, have fallen to about 2 percent. On chain activity is also concentrating: Optimism, Solana and Base together carry roughly two thirds of tracked spending.
The original insight is in what people are buying. This is no longer speculative trading activity moving through a payment rail for convenience. The volume growth is tracking everyday categories such as groceries, ride hailing and food delivery, the same categories Kraken targeted when it launched its own US debit card and the same use case behind this month’s bank-chartered stablecoin listing on Kraken. For issuers and card networks, the data suggests stablecoin funded cards are no longer a niche crypto product competing for crypto native spend. They are starting to compete directly with conventional debit rails for ordinary consumer transactions, and the currency mix shows dollar stablecoins are winning that competition even in markets that started out euro denominated.
Source: a16z crypto
