Stablecoin Cards Surge, But Who Profits From Each Swipe?

Stablecoin cards let customers spend digital dollars such as USDC at regular stores while merchants receive local currency through their existing payment providers. Visa reported more than 160 stablecoin-linked card programs on Oct. 1, with payment volume nearly doubling from the previous year.

Bridge, acquired by Stripe in 2025, supports Visa card programs that let customers in Colombia spend stablecoins while merchants receive Colombian pesos. Bridge handles the conversion, so restaurants and their payment providers do not need to accept cryptocurrency or change their card terminals.

Several companies can be involved in one payment. A regulated issuer provides the card, a wallet or financial app manages the customer relationship, Visa connects the participating institutions and the merchant’s payment provider accepts the card. Another company may handle currency conversion or settlement.

The issuer generally receives interchange revenue from fees paid by the merchant’s bank or payment provider. Wallet operators may receive part of that revenue, charge transaction fees or collect subscription payments. Visa earns network and processing fees, while merchant payment providers charge for card acceptance. One company can perform several of these functions.

Bridge advertises a card product that allows program operators to retain all interchange revenue and charge additional transaction fees. The amount remaining after processing, fraud prevention, compliance, customer support and other costs depends on the agreements for each program. Disputed purchases can create chargebacks weeks after a payment, while fraudulent transactions require investigation.

Wirex co-founder and CEO Pavel Matveev reported that programs using the company’s infrastructure process more than $200 million in monthly spending, including partner activity. Wirex has not disclosed how much of that volume it retains as revenue or how fees are divided among participants.

Card payments create obligations after a customer taps a terminal. Authorization allows a merchant to approve a purchase, while the financial institutions involved later settle what they owe each other. A card operator may need funds before the customer’s stablecoins have completed their transfer through the system.

Rain, a provider of stablecoin card infrastructure, uses a revolving credit facility from Credit Coop to meet its Visa settlement obligations. Rain borrows to fund payments and directs incoming cardholder proceeds through smart contracts to repay the borrowing and interest. Credit Coop earns income from providing the short-term financing.

Visa has reported that the arrangement reduced borrowing costs by as much as 30% for some participants. The companies have not disclosed the facility’s terms or how credit risks are divided. There is no evidence that the reported savings have been passed to customers through lower fees.

Cashback programs face limits on the revenue available to fund rewards. In the United Kingdom, interchange is capped at 0.2% for covered domestic consumer debit transactions and 0.3% for covered consumer credit transactions. On a qualifying £100 debit purchase, the issuer can receive no more than 20 pence in interchange before expenses and revenue sharing. A 2% cashback reward would cost £2, leaving a £1.80 gap that must come from another source or a promotional budget.

The UK caps do not apply to every stablecoin card or international transaction. Providers can fund rewards through subscriptions, currency-conversion charges, other services or promotional budgets. Wirex links higher cashback rates to subscription plans and token lockups, with rewards varying by market and customer plan.

Customers who receive or hold stablecoins can spend them without first transferring funds through a crypto exchange and a bank. Customers who convert euros or other local currencies into dollar-linked tokens may face additional exchange costs. The value of those tokens against pounds, euros or pesos can change with foreign-exchange rates even when the tokens maintain their dollar peg.

Payment volume does not show whether customers continue using the cards after introductory rewards or whether providers earn more than they spend serving them. The economics of each program depend on its fees, conversion rates, rewards, financing costs and operating expenses.