How can stablecoins be used for everyday payments? Gate Card connects digital assets with real-world spending scenarios

The crypto asset industry has gone through more than a decade. While the global user base continues to grow steadily, a long-standing contradiction has never been effectively resolved: digital assets in users’ wallets remain sufficiently available within their accounts, yet it is difficult to use them directly for everyday spending. From grocery shopping to online subscriptions, from cross-border payments to ATM cash withdrawals, the channels through which digital assets enter real-economy scenarios have always been insufficiently smooth.

This situation is now changing. The use cases of stablecoins have rapidly expanded from settlement tools within exchanges to a payments medium with global circulation capability. By early 2026, the monthly spending volume of crypto payment cards has reached the range of $500 million to $600 million, with an annualized run rate exceeding $5 billion. In May 2026, the cumulative transaction volume of crypto payment cards reached approximately $7.8 billion, up about 230% year over year.

Gate Card, the digital-asset Visa card launched by Gate, is trying to answer a key question: can crypto assets truly become a payment tool usable in daily life?

Market size of crypto payments and industry trends

Crypto payments are undergoing a shift from peripheral applications to mainstream consumer payment infrastructure. In 2025, the annual transaction volume of stablecoins reached approximately $3.3 trillion; the scale has already exceeded the combined total transaction processing volume of Visa and Mastercard, which is $2.55 trillion.

As of May 2026, the global total market capitalization of stablecoins has surpassed $320 billion. USDT holds about 58.9% of the market share, corresponding to circulating supply of nearly $190 billion. Dune data shows that USDT leads in commercial payments; the commercial payment amount identified in the first half of 2026 is about $95 billion.

Visa is rolling out more than 130 “stablecoin + card” linkage projects across more than 50 countries worldwide. Its annualized transaction volume for stablecoin settlement reached $7 billion in April 2026. Traditional payment networks are systematically adopting digital assets as settlement tools.

These data show that crypto payments are no longer just experimental applications within the industry—they are growing into a consumer settlement system with economies of scale.

The structural gap between holding and spending

The core contradiction in the digital asset industry is not the size of assets. According to Gate market data, as of July 13, 2026:

• Bitcoin is quoted at $63,746.4, with a market cap of $1.27 trillion and a market share of 34.97%
• Ethereum is quoted at $1,814.21, with a market cap of $218.944 billion and a market share of 5.82%
• GT is quoted at $6.68, with a market cap of $711 million

The problem is this: users hold a substantial amount of digital assets, but they are hard to use directly for everyday spending.

If users want to use USDT for payments, they usually need to go through a complex path: transfer USDT from their wallet to a trading account, sell it for fiat currency, withdraw it to a bank account, and then complete the purchase through a traditional bank card. This chain takes hours to days and involves multiple fee charges.

Price volatility further increases the difficulty of spending. Over the past 30 days, Bitcoin has changed by +2.46%; over the past year, it has changed by -45.66%. Over the past 30 days, Ethereum has changed by +7.31%; over the past year, it has changed by -41.04%. Users worry that the assets they spend today may appreciate significantly in the future—this psychological factor suppresses their willingness to spend.

Stablecoins are different. USDT is stable in price and naturally suitable as a payment medium for everyday spending, but it lacks the infrastructure for direct spending. It is precisely this gap that creates market demand for crypto payment infrastructure.

Gate Card’s payment logic: removing the middle steps

Gate Card is a digital-asset Visa card directly linked to a Gate Pay payment account. Its biggest difference from traditional bank cards is that what it connects to behind the scenes is not a bank balance, but a digital-asset account.

After users hold assets such as USDT, BTC, ETH, or GT in their Gate Pay payment account, the system automatically performs two things at the exact moment of the transaction when they make a purchase: first, it converts the selected digital asset into dollars at the real-time exchange rate; then, it settles with the merchant through the Visa network. The entire process is completed within seconds—what users perceive is simply a normal card-swipe experience.

This design eliminates the intermediate steps of “sell the coin first, then withdraw, and then spend.” For users who hold stablecoins long term, Gate Card turns USDT from a “held asset” into a “spendable asset.” Users do not need to manually exchange in advance; the system automatically completes the corresponding asset conversion based on the payment amount.

Supported asset types

Currently, Gate Card supports four digital assets for direct payments: USDT, BTC, ETH, and GT. If users hold these assets in their Gate Pay payment account, they can choose any one of them as the payment deduction source when spending.

As a stablecoin, USDT is naturally suitable as a payment medium for everyday spending. Bitcoin and Ethereum—two of the largest crypto assets by market capitalization—meet users’ needs for long-term holding, and when needed, they can also be used directly for spending. GT is Gate’s native asset, giving users more options for payments.

The specific supported denominations may differ depending on the card type, issuing institution, or region. The actual supported assets should be based on the card terms and what is shown on the page corresponding to the card the user holds.

Virtual cards and physical cards: covering all consumption scenarios

Gate Card comes in two forms: virtual cards and physical cards. Users can apply according to their needs.

Virtual cards are the preferred entry option for most users. After completing level 2 personal identity verification, virtual card approval typically takes only 3 to 5 minutes. Once approved, users can activate it immediately and start using it. Virtual cards are suitable for online shopping, and they support binding Apple Pay and Google Pay for contactless in-person payments via mobile devices.

Physical cards cover a wider range of scenarios: chip-in payments, contactless payments, and ATM cash withdrawals worldwide. Both card types have no card-issuing fees, no monthly fees, and no inactivity fees.

Cost structure

The main costs of Gate Card come from two areas:

Crypto-currency exchange fees: 0.90% is charged for transactions of $2 or more per transaction; for transactions below $2, a fee of $0.05 applies.

Foreign exchange fees (non-USD transactions): 0.40% for classic cards and platinum cards, which is at a relatively low level in the industry.

ATM cash withdrawal incurs a 2% fee. The daily withdrawal limit is $5,000; the monthly limit is $15,000; the annual limit is $50,000. The maximum per transaction is $5,000, and up to 10 withdrawals per day are allowed.

Points cashback: value flowing back from spending

Gate Card has built a points cashback system linked to VIP levels and spending amounts. Card tiers rise from T0 to T5 step by step, with cashback rates corresponding from 1.00% up to a maximum of 8.00%:

| Card tier | Points multiplier / cashback rate | Monthly points cashback cap | Monthly equivalent cashback amount | Points cashback cap per transaction | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | T0 | 1x / 1.00% | 500 points | up to 5U | 200 points | | T1 | 1x / 1.00% | 5,000 points | up to 50U | 1500 points | | T2 | 2x /2.00% | 10,000 points | up to 100U | 3000 points | | T3 | 3x /3.00% | 1,5000 points | up to 150U | 5000 points | | T4 | 5x /5.00% | 2,5000 points | up to 250U | 8000 points | | T5 | 8x /8.00% | 4,0000 points | up to 400U | 15000 points |

The points redemption ratio is fixed: 100 points = 1 USDT. For example, spending $100 earns 100 points, which can be redeemed for 1 USDT.

Points are valid permanently with no expiration limit, and users can redeem at any time. Currently, points can be redeemed for USDT and GT, and more coins will be added later.

Card tiers are determined based on the user’s Gate VIP level or the user’s card spending in the current month, and the higher benefits available under either condition apply. New tier benefits take effect in the next natural month and remain valid throughout that month.

From “holding assets” to “using assets”

The digital asset industry is undergoing a fundamental transformation. In the past, crypto assets were mainly used for trading and speculation, and users’ assets “stayed dormant” in exchange accounts or wallets. Now, as payment infrastructure such as Gate Card matures, digital assets begin to have true payment attributes.

Stablecoins play a key role in this transformation. With the advantages of “value stability, high transaction efficiency, and low costs,” stablecoins quickly penetrate scenarios such as cross-border payments, everyday spending, and B2B settlement. In 2025, the total on-chain stablecoin transfer volume reached $3.3 trillion, far exceeding Visa ($1.5 trillion) and Mastercard ($0.9 trillion) annual transaction volumes.

Gate Card allows assets users hold such as BTC, USDT, ETH, and GT to no longer be limited to trading purposes, and instead participate in real-world spending activities. From an industry perspective, this change means that digital assets are moving toward a more complete evolution of the financial ecosystem—an asset system that is mature not only needs trading markets, but also needs spending scenarios.

Conclusion

The transition of crypto assets from “holding” to “using” is the inevitable path toward industry maturity. Gate Card connects digital-asset accounts directly to the Visa payment network, enabling users to spend crypto assets at more than 150 million merchants worldwide without any middle steps.

From everyday payments with stablecoins to value flowing back through points cashback, Gate Card is redefining the flow path of digital assets. It ensures that every purchase is no longer a one-way outflow of value; instead, it forms a complete closed loop in which assets are reconfigured and value flows back along the way.

For users who hold digital assets, Gate Card provides not just a payment card, but a channel that helps assets move from “dormancy” to “circulation.” When crypto assets truly enter everyday spending scenarios, the loop of the digital economy can be fully completed.