Stablecoin-based playing cards might quickly account for double-digit percentages of all playing cards in some Latin American markets, John Timoney, head of strategic partnerships at Rain, a funds infrastructure platform, stated.
Retail stablecoin card spend grew about 105% to 106% over the previous yr, Timoney stated throughout a panel at Consensus Miami 2026. Playing cards are bodily or digital, permitting customers to spend stablecoins reminiscent of tether and USD Coin (USDC) immediately from a digital pockets for day by day purchases.
Rain offers stablecoin infrastructure for card issuers and not too long ago turned a Mastercard Principal Member, permitting it to supply credit score and pay as you go playing cards on the Mastercard community. Rain and Mastercard are additionally exploring on-chain settlement for some card program flows utilizing regulated stablecoins.
The corporate isn’t making an attempt to exchange card networks, Timoney stated. It’s making an attempt to make stablecoin balances usable by current networks that already attain retailers globally.
“The cardboard networks over a long time have rolled up tons of of tens of millions of retailers,” Timoney stated. “Rain explicitly didn’t need to reinvent the wheel.”
Spend patterns are additionally turning into more durable to differentiate from unusual card exercise, he stated. Stablecoin card customers are spending throughout typical service provider classes, together with massive world retailers and on a regular basis purchases.
“There’s nothing too outstanding about that,” Timoney stated. “And I believe that’s what is outstanding.”
Regardless of their development, stablecoin playing cards account for lower than 1% of worldwide card spend, senior vp of enterprise improvement at Consensys Ray Hernandez stated throughout the identical panel.
Crypto card adoption
Latin America has change into one of many clearest markets for adoption, Timoney added. Stablecoin playing cards are getting used throughout custodial and non-custodial wallets, crypto exchanges and merchandise that summary the stablecoin expertise from customers.
The service provider nonetheless receives fiat in lots of these transactions. That separates card-based stablecoin spending from direct crypto push funds, the place retailers could need to handle crypto settlement, volatility and transaction threat extra immediately.
The larger change could also be behind the scenes. Rain says stablecoin settlement lets card packages choose weekends and holidays, decreasing trapped capital by greater than 40% in some circumstances.
Conventional card packages typically must pre-fund community obligations or borrow from networks when banking rails are closed. Stablecoins can transfer exterior financial institution cut-off occasions.
That may make rewards and card economics extra versatile, Timoney stated. Capital that might in any other case sit idle can be utilized elsewhere within the enterprise.
Mastercard has been shifting deeper into stablecoin funds. Earlier this yr Binance, PayPal and Ripple joined Mastercard’s broader blockchain funds push. That push noticed the funds large agree to purchase stablecoin infrastructure agency BVNK for as much as $1.8 billion.
Christian Rau, Mastercard’s senior vp of digital belongings and blockchain, stated mainstream adoption will rely on making the know-how invisible to shoppers.
“Aside from the individuals on this room, no person says ‘oh, I simply did an onchain cost’,” Rau stated. “The conventional benchmark today is you might have a card sitting in your iPhone or on an Android. You faucet it, the cash is gone.”
The patron-facing pitch isn’t an onchain cost, he added. It’s the skill to spend any asset in actual time, with the community protections customers already anticipate.
Hernandez stated the subsequent stage is determined by simpler on-ramps, abstracted community charges and extra native cost infrastructure. Immediately’s crypto card customers are nonetheless principally crypto-native shoppers who already maintain belongings on-chain.
MetaMask is increasing its card technique round self-custody, Hernandez stated. The MetaMask Card, developed with Mastercard and Baanx, lets customers spend from a self-custodial pockets whereas belongings are transformed into fiat on the time of buy.
“If all we’re doing is replicating the Apple Pay expertise, I believe it’s going to be okay, however I don’t assume we’re going to overhaul,” Hernandez stated.
Paying in crypto
That view drew a problem from GoMining CEO Mark Zalan, who argued that stablecoins and card infrastructure add pointless intermediaries to crypto funds.
Zalan stated customers need to maintain bitcoin in self-custody and spend it with out changing into stablecoins or counting on off-ramps. He described conversion layers and cost intermediaries as “little helpers” taking small charges from every transaction.
“Safety is one other phrase for rent-seeking,” Zalan stated, referring to the patron protections embedded in card transactions.
Timoney pushed again, saying funds aren’t solely cash motion. Card networks additionally deal with chargebacks, service provider threat and different protections shoppers and retailers anticipate.
Rau made the same level. Most shoppers have been “socialized with deposit insurance coverage” and chargeback safety, he stated.
“Cost is greater than shifting cash from A to B,” Rau stated. “From a shopper perspective, the expertise of cost is interoperability, security and safety.”