Spending with crypto cards skyrocketed by 525% in 2025 to $91 million as stablecoins drive daily payments

Source: Yellow Original Title: Crypto Card Spending Surged 525% in 2025 to $91 Million as Stablecoins Drive Daily Payments

Original Link: Cryptocurrency cards transitioned from experimental payment tools to everyday spending instruments in 2025.

Deposits denominated in stablecoins fueled explosive growth across multiple card providers.

Crypto cards backed by Visa saw spending increases from $14.6 million in January to $91.3 million in December, according to Dune Analytics data.

What happened

Six crypto card programs associated with Visa dominated the spending volumes tracked throughout 2025.

EtherFi led all providers with $55.4 million in annual spending.

Cypher followed with $20.5 million, while GnosisPay, Avici Money, Exa App, and Moonwell contributed smaller but growing volumes.

Investigations analyzing broader crypto card activity up to October 2025 found that stablecoins accounted for nearly 100% of the collateral deposited.

USDT and USDC emerged as the dominant funding sources for the card programs.

Rain-based card infrastructure powered multiple programs, including EtherFi, KAST, and Avalanche cards, functioning as underlying payment rails rather than standalone products.

Monthly active users reached approximately 40,000 by the end of October, indicating repeated and sustained use rather than mere experimental activity.

Transaction patterns showed low-value daily spending rather than large speculative purchases.

Why it matters

Spending patterns indicate that crypto cards are increasingly functioning as international payment accounts rather than merely speculative instruments.

Multichain support expanded on Ethereum, Polygon, Base, Arbitrum, and Solana, with users optimizing for lower transaction costs.

Infrastructure consolidation emerged as a defining feature, with “card-as-a-service” providers like Rain capturing most of the volume through shared infrastructure serving multiple programs.

However, the model faces structural challenges heading into 2026.

Most programs lack vertical integration, creating single points of failure where compliance incidents at higher levels can trigger sudden restrictions.

On-chain transaction transparency raises privacy concerns as spending patterns become publicly analyzable.

The ecosystem remains firmly in a “onboarding-driven” growth phase, focused on user acquisition rather than profitability.

Card providers face pressure to balance expansion with interchange economics and operational complexity as competition intensifies.