Stablecoin-based cards could soon account for double-digit percentages of all cards in some Latin American markets, said John Timoney, head of strategic partnerships at Rain, a payments infrastructure platform.
Retail spending on stablecoin cards increased by about 105% to 106% over the past year, Timoney said during a panel at Consensus Miami 2026. The cards are physical or virtual, allowing users to spend stablecoins such as and USD Coin (USDC) directly from a digital wallet for daily purchases.
Rain provides stablecoin infrastructure for card issuers and recently became a Mastercard Principal Member, enabling it to offer credit and prepaid cards on the Mastercard network. Rain and Mastercard are also investigating the on-chain settlement of some card program streams using regulated stablecoins.
The company is not trying to replace card networks, Timoney said. It attempts to make stablecoin balances usable through existing networks that already reach traders globally.
“The card networks over the decades have brought together hundreds of millions of merchants,” Timoney said. “Rain expressly did not want to reinvent the wheel.”
Spending patterns are also becoming harder to distinguish from regular card activity, he said. Stablecoin card users spend across typical merchant categories, including large global merchants and everyday purchases.
“There’s nothing too remarkable about it,” Timoney said. “And I think that’s what’s remarkable.”
Despite their growth, stablecoin cards account for less than 1% of global card usage, Consensys senior vice president of business development Ray Hernandez said during the same panel.
Acceptance of crypto cards
Latin America has become one of the clearest markets for adoption, Timoney added. Stablecoin cards are used across custodial and non-custodial wallets, crypto exchanges, and products that abstract the stablecoin experience from users.
The merchant still receives fiat in many of these transactions. It differentiates card-based stablecoin spending from direct crypto-push payments, where merchants may need to manage crypto settlement, volatility and transaction risk more directly.
The bigger change may be behind the scenes. Rain says the stablecoin settlement allows the card programs to settle on weekends and holidays, in some cases reducing locked-up capital by more than 40%.
Traditional card programs often have to pre-fund network liabilities or borrow from networks when bank lanes are closed. Stablecoins can move outside the bank’s cut-off times.
That could make rewards and the card economy more flexible, Timoney said. Capital that would otherwise sit idle can be used elsewhere in the company.
Mastercard has moved deeper into stablecoin payments. Earlier this year, Binance, PayPal and Ripple joined Mastercard’s broader blockchain payments. That push led the payments giant to agree to buy stablecoin infrastructure firm BVNK for up to $1.8 billion.
Christian Rau, Mastercard’s senior vice president of digital assets and blockchain, said mainstream adoption will depend on making the technology invisible to consumers.
“Besides the people in this room, no one is saying ‘oh, I just made an onchain payment,'” Rau said. “The normal benchmark these days is you have a card on your iPhone or on an Android. If you tap it, the money is gone.”
The consumer-facing pitch is not an onchain payment, he added. It’s the ability to use any asset in real time with the network protection that users already expect.
Hernandez said the next phase depends on easier on-ramps, abstract network fees and more local payment infrastructure. Today’s crypto card users are still mostly crypto-native consumers who already have on-chain assets.
MetaMask is expanding its card strategy around self-service, Hernandez said. Developed with Mastercard and Baanx, the MetaMask card allows users to spend from a self-deposit wallet while converting assets to fiat at the time of purchase.
“If all we do is copy the Apple Pay experience, I think it’ll be okay, but I don’t think we’re going to overtake,” Hernandez said.
Pays in crypto
That view was challenged by GoMining CEO Mark Zalan, who argued that stablecoins and card infrastructure add unnecessary middlemen to crypto payments.
Zalan said users want to keep bitcoin in self-custody and use it without converting to stablecoins or relying on off-ramps. He described conversion layers and payment intermediaries as “little helpers” who take small fees from each transaction.
“Protection is another word for rent-seeking,” Zalan said, referring to the consumer protections embedded in card transactions.
Timoney pushed back, saying payments aren’t just money movements. Card networks also handle chargebacks, merchant risk and other protections that consumers and merchants expect.
Rau made a similar point. Most consumers were “socialized with deposit insurance” and chargeback protection, he said.
“Payment is more than moving money from A to B,” Rau said. “From a consumer perspective, the experience of payment is interoperability, safety and security.”
