5 CHARTS: HOW CRYPTO CARDS ARE DRIVING STABLECOIN SPEND

Summary from the TLDR Crypto newsletter

Crypto payment card volume reached $759 million in July, up 2.5x year-over-year from $306 million and from sub-$1 million at tracking inception in October 2023, across nearly 9 million transactions averaging $86 each, per Paymentscan. Settlement now concentrates on Optimism (29%), Solana (19%), and Base (19%), while Gnosis has dropped to roughly 2% after previously dominating as the home of Gnosis Pay. Dollar-backed stablecoins have displaced euro alternatives: USDC handles 58% of card spend and USDT 26%, compared to 48% and 7% a year ago respectively, while EURe's share collapsed from 88% in early 2024 to about 2% today. Cards convert stablecoins to local fiat at point of sale via Visa rails, allowing holders to access dollar accounts without a traditional bank account, though the category's monthly volume remains orders of magnitude below the trillions processed by legacy card networks.