What happened
Stablecoin-issued payment cards have now processed north of $10. 9 billion in aggregate transaction volume, according to a Crypto. News report published Saturday.
RedotPay, one of the larger issuers in the segment, told the outlet it expects annual card spend across the category to reach $50 billion by 2028. That would be roughly a fivefold jump from current cumulative levels, and it implies a step change in how everyday retail transactions clear. The cards operate as prepaid or debit instruments tied to a user's stablecoin balance.
When a customer taps to pay, the issuer converts USDC, USDT or a similar dollar-pegged token into fiat at authorization, then settles the merchant through Visa or Mastercard's existing rails. The consumer sees a standard card charge. The back end runs on chain.
Why it matters
Stablecoin card programs are the first mass-market bridge between crypto balances and the physical economy that doesn't require the merchant to know or care about crypto. That matters for two reasons. First, it turns dormant on-chain dollars into working capital for holders in jurisdictions with weak local currencies or thin banking access.
Second, it gives Visa and Mastercard a live experiment in what happens when the funding source is a tokenized dollar rather than a bank deposit. The $10. 9 billion figure is small next to Visa's roughly $16 trillion in annual payment volume.
It's not small compared with where the category sat two years ago, when card-linked stablecoin spend was a rounding error. The trajectory, not the base, is what card issuers and regulators are watching.