Stablecoin-linked cards processed a record $1.17 billion of spending in September, the highest monthly figure tracked by payments analytics platform Paymentscan, even as the number of card transactions actually fell from August.Paymentscan tracked about $1.17 billion in stablecoin card volume through Sept. 30, already above August’s completed total. The platform recorded 11.0 million transactions in September, down from 11.07 million in August. With roughly the same number of payments handling more money, the implied average transaction rose to about $107.The pattern suggests a market moving dollars through fewer, larger payments. Cuy Sheffield, head of crypto at Visa, described stablecoin-linked cards as being in “hyper growth mode” in comments cited by industry outlets, as issuers connect dollar tokens to existing card networks rather than wait for merchants to accept crypto directly.Card-linked spending has grown quickly because it solves a practical problem. Merchants do not need to accept cryptocurrency, and users do not need an exchange account to pay a bill. The card network handles the merchant side, while on-chain balances back the transactions.
How the spending splits
Paymentscan’s on-chain-only data showed $788.9 million of September spending across tracked networks. Base, the layer-2 network backed by Coinbase, led with $216.8 million, or 27.5% of the on-chain total. Optimism followed at $127 million, Solana at $109.3 million, Stellar at $69.3 million, Polygon at $50.9 million and Ethereum at $49.5 million. Plasma contributed $38.3 million, while another $127.8 million spread across 11 smaller chains.Those figures cover on-chain spending only. The broader $1.17 billion headline can also include issuer-supplied off-chain, clearing or settlement data depending on the card program, which is why the two totals differ.
| Chain | September spend | Share of on-chain total |
|---|---|---|
| Base | $216.8 million | 27.5% |
| Optimism | $127.0 million | 16.1% |
| Solana | $109.3 million | 13.9% |
| Stellar | $69.3 million | 8.8% |
| Polygon | $50.9 million | 6.5% |
| Ethereum | $49.5 million | 6.3% |
Card programs at the top
At the program level, RedotPay remained the largest tracked card issuer with $401.9 million in 30-day spending, equivalent to roughly $4.9 billion annualized and about 34% of the headline monthly total. EtherFi ranked second with $127.4 million, or about $1.5 billion annualized, followed by KAST at $113.1 million.Karta and Wirex One rounded out the top five with $48.7 million and $46.9 million of 30-day volume respectively. Growth was uneven across the group: RedotPay’s volume rose 3% over the month, while EtherFi grew 20.3%, KAST 11.1%, Karta 14.4% and Wirex One 40.1%.Not every metric moved the same way. Active addresses on tracked networks slipped to 283,761 from 287,634, though Paymentscan notes its addresses measure is incomplete because RedotPay, the largest program, does not report an active-address figure on the platform.
Why the bigger transactions matter
Spending size matters for how a card business makes money. Interchange fees and program rewards scale with volume; fixed costs do not. A portfolio of larger purchases generates more revenue per unit of verification and support work than many small ones.Spending through stablecoin cards has previously skewed toward small transactions in emerging markets, where crypto-linked cards often substitute for banking services that are expensive or unavailable. September’s larger average purchase points to growth in higher-value spending forms, including travel, online retail and cross-border supplier payments, though Paymentscan does not break down the underlying merchant categories in its public data.Issuers still face a question about whether card volume converts into a durable financial relationship. A research note from Tiger Research cited by CryptoSlate argued the more important question is whether crypto-card providers can capture everyday financial activity such as salary deposits and recurring expenses, which remain largely outside their control.
Still a small share of card spending
The record $1.17 billion remains a fraction of the traditional card market, where global purchase volume runs in the trillions of dollars annually. Card-based stablecoin payments have nonetheless grown through 2026 as more issuers attach dollar tokens to Visa and Mastercard rails, sidestepping the need for merchants to accept crypto directly.Monthly card volume has climbed more than 230% since May 2025, according to Paymentscan data cited in industry coverage. September’s figure continues a run of record months even as broader crypto trading activity cooled in parts of the summer, showing that card-linked spending has drifted away from the trading cycle.For the market to move beyond card-linked spending, issuers still need a banking partner for fiat obligations such as rent, taxes and supplier invoices, since stablecoins themselves settle on-chain. Several issuers pair their card programs with accounts that maintain both fiat and on-chain balances for this reason. Fees and the mix of card programs also vary by region, and the totals counted here exclude untracked programs entirely.
What to watch
The next test is whether issuers can keep dollar volume growing faster than transaction counts, or whether September’s mix reflects a seasonal shift rather than a structural change. Paymentscan’s figures update as more programs report, so the final September total could still move after month-end.Meanwhile, card-linked stablecoins remain busiest in the same markets where dollar access is limited, with growth in transaction size a sign that the payments are moving beyond small test cases. Issuers’ next challenge is holding that growth without the promotional incentives that have helped drive early adoption, and building deposits, savings and recurring payment products that keep balances in the ecosystem rather than cycling out to exchanges after each purchase.If issuers manage that, stablecoin cards could move from a niche payments add-on toward a general spending rail backed by dollar tokens; if not, the market stays a young corner of a much larger card business with trading-cycle volatility attached to every balance.Sources: CryptoSlate, Sept. 30; CryptoRank, Sept. 30; Paymentscan data