Stablecoin Payments Soar 15-Fold as Visa Touts Tokenized Asset Potential

Stablecoins have seen significant growth in their role as payment instruments, with Visa reporting that stablecoin card payments surged 15-fold in a year. According to Moon Sung-gil, a director at Visa Korea, this is because stablecoins are highly liquid payment assets convertible into other currencies and well suited to sophisticated financial techniques such as leverage looping.

Visa data show that monthly transaction volumes have roughly doubled year-on-year since late 2024, reaching a peak of around $1.8 trillion. The Redot Pay card, Ether.fi Cash Visa, and KAST Visa card are among the most prominent products currently on the market, offering streamlined payment experiences and customer-tailored services.

Moon argued that for stablecoins to establish themselves as a payment instrument in the real economy, integration with existing systems is critical. He proposed that stablecoin issuers share a portion of the returns earned from managing their reserve assets with distribution partners such as card companies, with those funds then channeled into card rewards.