The card payment market utilizing stablecoins is growing rapidly. With the expansion of real-world use cases, particularly in Latin America, analysts suggest that stablecoins are establishing themselves as a global payment infrastructure, moving beyond being mere exchange assets.
According to CoinDesk, John Timoni, Head of Partnerships at stablecoin startup Rain, stated at the U.S. Consensus 2026 event that “the usage of stablecoin-based card payments has increased by approximately 105% over the past year.” He predicted that “the market share of stablecoin card payments could reach double digits in some Latin American markets.”
The market interprets this as a change that goes beyond a mere expansion of payment methods. It suggests that stablecoins have effectively begun to serve as a 'digital dollar' in countries with limited access to the dollar or high volatility in their domestic currencies. Latin America, in particular, is cited as a prime example of a region where demand for stablecoins is rapidly increasing due to a combination of high inflation, exchange rate instability, and limited financial accessibility.
The industry is paying attention to the fact that the usability of stablecoin cards has significantly expanded as they integrate with existing Visa and Mastercard networks. Users can hold stablecoins such as USDC and USDT and use them for real-life payments just like regular cards, with automatic currency conversion and settlement taking place during the payment process. This effectively marks the beginning of a practical connection between blockchain-based assets and existing financial infrastructure.
Recently, global big tech companies and traditional financial institutions are also entering the relevant market one after another. Amazon Web Services (AWS) recently unveiled a stablecoin payment infrastructure dedicated to AI agents in collaboration with Coinbase and Stripe, and Visa is also accelerating the expansion of its stablecoin payment network.
The market is paying attention to the potential for the proliferation of stablecoin cards to extend to global remittance, e-commerce, and AI-driven automated payment markets in the long term. In particular, there are predictions that the "popularization of on-chain finance" could proceed faster than expected as card networks are combined with blockchain.
