preferred on
Points of Focus
- USDC and USDT combined now handle 84% of crypto card spending.
- That combined share was 55% a year ago: USDC at 48% and USDT at 7%.
- EURe’s share of card volume fell from 88% in 2024 to about 2%.
USDC now handles about 58% of crypto payment card spending and USDT about 26%, putting combined dollar-stablecoin share at approximately 84%, up from roughly 48% and 7%, respectively, a combined 55%, a year earlier, according to a16z crypto, citing data from Paymentscan.
Monthly crypto card volume overall reached $759 million in July, up roughly 2.5 times from $306 million a year earlier.
Dollar stablecoins take the category
The 29 percentage point jump in combined USDC and USDT share came almost entirely at the expense of euro-backed EURe. In early 2024, EURe accounted for roughly 88% of crypto card volume, most of it settled through Gnosis Pay, the first Visa card connected to a self-custodial wallet without an intermediary. By July 2026, EURe’s share had fallen to about 2%, a near-total reversal.
Crypto payment cards remain a small market next to traditional card networks, which process trillions of dollars per month.
But the trend is growing as stablecoins make greater inroads into the global financial system, including by piggybacking on existing major card network… pic.twitter.com/k0Mge83pSr
— a16z crypto (@a16zcrypto) August 9, 2026
USDT’s growth stands out specifically: its share of card spending grew nearly fourfold, from about 7% to 26%, the fastest-growing single stablecoin in the category over the past year. USDC’s growth was more modest in percentage terms, from 48% to 58%, but it remains the largest single stablecoin used for card spending by a wide margin.
Together, the two dollar stablecoins now leave only about 16% of tracked card volume split among EURe and other currencies combined, down from a much more fragmented split two years ago.
Settlement chains diversified alongside the currency shift. Optimism now carries about 29% of card volume, Solana about 19%, and Base about 19%, while Gnosis, the category’s original home, dropped to about 2%.
Nearly all tracked card spending settles through Visa. Nearly 9 million purchases used crypto cards in July, up from about 5.2 million a year ago, putting average spend per transaction at approximately $86.
A caveat on the largest program
RedotPay, the largest individual program by volume, self-reports its figures to Paymentscan rather than having them independently observed onchain, a distinction a16z states in the post itself rather than leaving it implied. Every other program in the tracked set reflects onchain activity attributable to that specific card program, a distinction that matters given RedotPay alone represents a substantial share of the July total.
The $759 million in total monthly card spend remains a small fraction of the trillions in monthly onchain transfer volume USDC and USDT process independent of card usage, underscoring that point-of-sale spending is still a narrow slice of total stablecoin activity even as this category’s currency composition shifts quickly.
What comes next
The shift from euro to dollar stablecoins on crypto cards mirrors a pattern already visible elsewhere in stablecoin infrastructure, dollar-denominated tokens consolidating share as issuance, compliance frameworks, and new card program launches concentrate around USDC and USDT specifically.
Whether the 84% combined share climbs further depends partly on whether new card programs keep launching in dollar stablecoins by default, and partly on whether RedotPay’s self-reported volume holds up against onchain-verified competitors as more of the category becomes independently observable.
The next Paymentscan update will show whether USDT’s share continues closing the gap with USDC or whether this year’s growth rate levels off.
Share
Most read articles
