Stablecoin Card Spending Hit $1.2B in September
...for comparison, the current Paymentscan dataset shows less than $1B of tracked B $BTC card spending across the whole of 2024. But another number caught my attention there: Visa accounts for roughly 96% of tracked card volume.
• Visa: $1.176B
• Mastercard: $46.6M
That is a large gap for 2 payment networks that both actively work with crypto card programs.
Part of the explanation may be distribution. Visa now supports more than 160 stablecoin-linked card programs, compared with 130+ earlier this year. It has also been expanding issuance through partners such as Bridge and Reap, with both targeting card programs across 100+ markets.
There is also the settlement side: stablecoin card programs still need issuers, processors, liquidity and daily settlement funding. Visa has been building infrastructure around those requirements, including $BTC onchain settlement and financing for card programs
Mastercard is moving in the same direction though. It already works with crypto card programs and this year added stablecoin settlement options for issuers and acquirers. So I wouldn't read the 96/4 split as a permanent structural advantage yet.
For now, it looks more like Visa built more distribution around stablecoin cards earlier and that lead is showing up in volume.
Will Mastercard close the gap?
#Macro Insights# #BTC Price Analysis#
#Stablecoins
...for comparison, the current Paymentscan dataset shows less than $1B of tracked B $BTC card spending across the whole of 2024. But another number caught my attention there: Visa accounts for roughly 96% of tracked card volume.
• Visa: $1.176B
• Mastercard: $46.6M
That is a large gap for 2 payment networks that both actively work with crypto card programs.
Part of the explanation may be distribution. Visa now supports more than 160 stablecoin-linked card programs, compared with 130+ earlier this year. It has also been expanding issuance through partners such as Bridge and Reap, with both targeting card programs across 100+ markets.
There is also the settlement side: stablecoin card programs still need issuers, processors, liquidity and daily settlement funding. Visa has been building infrastructure around those requirements, including $BTC onchain settlement and financing for card programs
Mastercard is moving in the same direction though. It already works with crypto card programs and this year added stablecoin settlement options for issuers and acquirers. So I wouldn't read the 96/4 split as a permanent structural advantage yet.
For now, it looks more like Visa built more distribution around stablecoin cards earlier and that lead is showing up in volume.
Will Mastercard close the gap?
#Macro Insights# #BTC Price Analysis#
#Stablecoins