Crypto Cards Rival Stablecoin Transfers as Spending Tops $18 Billion: Artemis

Crypto-linked payment cards have become one of the fastest-growing bridges between stablecoins and everyday commerce, according to Artemis, a blockchain analytics firm.

In a Jan. 15 research report compiling estimates from on-chain settlement data and card network disclosures, Artemis found that monthly crypto card volume surged from about $100 million in early 2023 to more than $1.5 billion by late 2025.

“Annualized, the market now exceeds $18 billion, rivaling peer-to-peer stablecoin transfers ($19 billion), which grew just 5% over the same period,” the report reads.

While crypto cards can be funded with a range of assets, the report notes that Circle’s USDC and Tether’s USDT account for nearly 96% of deposited collateral on cards issued via Rain, an infrastructure platform that enables businesses to issue Visa cards.

Visa has also emerged as the dominant payment network in the sector, capturing more than 90% of on-chain card volume despite having a similar number of programs as Mastercard. As Artemis explains, this divergence is likely thanks to Visa’s “early partnerships with infrastructure providers.”

Visa’s stablecoin-linked card spending alone reached a $3.5 billion annualized run rate in late 2025, growing about 460% year over year, according to the report.

A geographic breakdown of stablecoin usage shows India and Argentina as “true global outliers,” where USDC accounts for 47.4% and 46.6% of usage, respectively.

By comparison, USDT dominates stablecoin activity across most other markets, including Turkey, China and Japan, according to the data.

However, even with the rapid growth of crypto cards, Artemis doesn’t expect direct crypto acceptance to fully replace card networks in the near term, citing their “slow relative growth in volume in comparison to cards.”