Stablecoin Cards See 200% Growth, But Revenue Models Remain Complex

Visa reported more than 160 stablecoin-linked card programs on Oct. 1, with payment volume up nearly 200% from the previous year. Stablecoin cards let customers fund ordinary card purchases with digital dollars while merchants receive conventional currency through existing payment providers. Visa's partnership with Bridge allows customers in Colombia to spend stablecoins while merchants receive Colombian pesos. Bridge handles conversion, removing the need for merchants or payment providers to accept cryptocurrency and for customers to withdraw stablecoins to bank accounts first. Infrastructure companies such as Bridge, Wirex and Rain earn much of their revenue from payment fees, with additional opportunities in conversion, settlement financing and subscriptions.

Consumer apps manage customer relationships, regulated issuers provide cards, payment networks connect participating institutions, and merchant providers handle acceptance, sometimes alongside separate conversion or settlement services. Companies can perform several roles, and those roles do not necessarily create separate fees on every transaction. The merchant's bank or payment provider pays interchange to the card issuer, usually within the broader fees merchants pay to accept cards. Visa earns revenue from network and related services, while issuer agreements determine revenue sharing with customer-facing card operators. Bridge, which Stripe acquired in 2025, advertises a product allowing program operators to retain 100% of interchange and charge additional transaction fees. Operators must still cover processing, fraud prevention, compliance and support costs, including chargebacks that can arise weeks after approval and investigations of fraudulent transactions.

Wirex co-founder and CEO Pavel Matveev said programs using Wirex infrastructure process more than $200 million in monthly spending, including partner activity. Wirex has not provided the requested transaction-fee and revenue-sharing breakdown, so processing volume does not establish how much revenue Wirex retains.

Card authorization allows merchants to accept purchases, but financial institutions must settle obligations later, sometimes before customer funds complete their movement through the system. Around-the-clock stablecoin transfers do not remove card programs' need for short-term financing when settlement obligations fall due. Rain uses a revolving credit facility from Credit Coop to fund Visa settlement obligations. Rain directs incoming cardholder proceeds through smart contracts that help repay the borrowing and interest. Credit Coop earns income for supplying funds between payment and repayment, allowing Rain to avoid funding every settlement obligation entirely with idle cash. Illustratively, borrowing $1 million at a 10% annual rate would cost approximately $274 for one day, compared with about $68 for six hours; these are not Rain's disclosed borrowing terms. Revolving credit allows repaid capital to finance successive payments, so cumulative processing volume can greatly exceed outstanding borrowing. Visa claims Credit Coop's model has reduced borrowing costs by as much as 30% for some participants, although the underlying terms and credit-risk allocation remain undisclosed. No evidence yet shows that card operators pass those funding savings to customers through lower fees. Visa also supports USDC settlement between participating financial institutions, so customer spending, institutional settlement and merchant deposits can use different currencies without merchants receiving stablecoins.

Britain's Payment Systems Regulator sets interchange caps of 0.2% for covered domestic consumer debit transactions and 0.3% for covered consumer credit transactions. A qualifying £100 debit purchase therefore generates at most 20 pence in interchange before issuer expenses or revenue sharing with a card partner. Offering 2% cashback on that purchase would cost £2, leaving a £1.80 gap requiring another revenue source or promotional funding. The UK caps do not cover every stablecoin card or international transaction, but providers may need subscriptions, conversion charges, other-service income or customer-acquisition subsidies to finance generous rewards. Advertised rewards can require qualifying token balances, paid plans or minimum spending, and Wirex ties higher cryptoback rates to subscription tiers and token lockups, with rewards varying by market and plan. Subscription charges, conversion spreads and foreign-transaction fees can reduce customer benefits, especially when spending is insufficient to justify an upgraded plan. Repeat spending can help operators recover acquisition and support costs, depending on revenue remaining after rewards and partner fees.

Stablecoin cards offer their strongest advantage to people already receiving or holding digital dollars, including freelancers who can avoid repeated transfers through exchanges and local banks. Customer savings depend on available alternatives and total transaction costs. Customers earning and spending euros can incur additional currency costs by converting euros into dollar stablecoins and back into euros at checkout. Customers paid directly in stablecoins still need to consider conversion spreads, card fees and the exchange rate applied to local-currency purchases. Dollar-linked tokens aim to maintain dollar value, but foreign-exchange movements can change purchasing power in euros, pesos or pounds even when the dollar peg holds. Wirex has not supplied transaction-level fee figures or retention data connecting reported spending to individual customer economics, and public spending dashboards do not reveal providers' retained revenue per purchase. Rapid spending growth does not establish continued use after introductory incentives or consistent provider profitability, while blockchain-based settlement may reduce some traditional payment costs.