Stablecoin Card Spending Hits Record High in August

Crypto payment cards reached new heights in August, exceeding $1 billion in volume for the second consecutive month. According to data from paymentscan.xyz, stablecoin card spending hit a record $1.076 billion in August, with transactions reaching around 10.67 million and users growing to over 283K.

The sector saw significant growth across various regions, particularly in emerging markets. StraitsX reported a 600% increase in gross transaction value across lower-GDP regions between early 2025 and 2026. Meanwhile, Binance highlighted a 53% rise in average users of its Brazil card from the launch quarter to Q2 2026.

The growth can be attributed to several factors, including the decreasing cost per transaction and the increasing adoption of stablecoin settlement systems. Mastercard turned on stablecoin settlement in June, covering USDC, Paxos-issued tokens, RLUSD, and SoFiUSD across eight chains. Visa now counts more than 160 stablecoin card programs either live or in development.

However, some caveats should be considered when interpreting the data. The sector is still relatively small, with August's $1.076 billion annualizing to roughly $12.9 billion, which is about 0.06% of the traditional card market. Additionally, three programs make up 55.6% of all volume, making the sector more fragile than the headline number suggests.