Why Stablecoins Are Now the Fastest Growing Consumer Payment Method in the United States

Three years ago, stablecoins were a niche tool used almost exclusively by crypto traders to move money between exchanges. Today, they are funding consumer purchases, settling cross-border invoices, powering payroll systems, and quietly replacing legacy payment rails in industries where speed and cost matter more than tradition.

Monthly crypto card spending alone grew from roughly $100 million in early 2023 to approximately $1.5 billion by late 2025. That represents 15 times growth in under three years, a rate that outpaces every other consumer payment category tracked during the same period.

The shift is visible across every sector that accepts crypto payments. Consumer platforms ranging from e-commerce merchants to digital entertainment services are reporting sharp increases in stablecoin transaction volume. Data compiled by platforms operating as a crypto casino for US players showed that stablecoin deposits overtook Bitcoin as the preferred funding method among US based users for the first time in mid 2025, a trend consistent with broader industry data showing stablecoins now account for 30% of all on-chain transaction volume.

For the fintech industry, this is not a minor development. It is a structural change in how Americans move and spend digital money.

What Changed in 2025

Two forces converged to push stablecoins from a crypto internal tool into mainstream payment infrastructure: regulation and integration.

On the regulatory side, the US Congress passed the GENIUS Act in July 2025. This was the first federal law specifically designed to govern stablecoins. The law requires issuers to maintain 100% reserves in liquid assets like US dollars or Treasury bills, implement anti money laundering programs, and submit to federal or state regulatory oversight. It declared that payment stablecoins are not securities, not commodities, and not bank deposits, giving them their own legal category.

Penny Lee, CEO of the Financial Technology Association, explained the practical impact: the GENIUS Act gave financial institutions the confidence to understand the rules around digital assets. Banks that had been watching from the sidelines for years finally had a clear framework to work within.

On the integration side, every major payment network moved aggressively into stablecoins during 2025. Visa began settling transactions in USDC with US banks, expanding a program it first piloted in 2023. By late 2025, Visa’s on chain stablecoin settlement for card issuers reached a $3.5 billion annual run rate. The company now supports over 130 stablecoin-linked card programs across more than 40 countries.

Fiserv, one of the largest banking technology companies in the world, launched its own stablecoin (FIUSD) and announced interoperability with PayPal’s PYUSD. That single move opened stablecoin access to thousands of financial institutions and PayPal’s base of 430 million consumers and 36 million merchants.

Stripe acquired Bridge, a stablecoin infrastructure company, signaling that even payment processors outside the crypto ecosystem see stablecoins as core to the future of money movement.

Chris McGee, global head of financial services consulting at AArete, told American Banker that “the first wave of stablecoin innovation and scaling will really happen in 2026.” He pointed to treasury optimization and currency conversion as the areas of fastest growth.

The Numbers Behind the Shift

The scale of stablecoin growth in 2025 is difficult to overstate.

Total stablecoin supply crossed $300 billion, a symbolic milestone that placed the category alongside systemically relevant financial markets. Monthly transaction volume averaged $1.1 trillion over the six months ending in November 2025, according to Grayscale’s 2026 Digital Asset Outlook.

Tether’s USDT processed approximately $703 billion per month between June 2024 and June 2025, peaking at $1.01 trillion in a single month. USDC volumes were more volatile but at times exceeded USDT. Together, Tether and Circle control more than 94% of the stablecoin market.

Stablecoin card spending specifically has shown explosive growth. According to insights4vc analysis, monthly crypto card spend rose from roughly $100 million in early 2023 to about $1.5 billion by late 2025. Annualized, that represents approximately $18 billion, a figure approaching peer to peer stablecoin payment volumes of roughly $19 billion.

The critical detail is that this is not merchants “accepting crypto.” This is stablecoin-funded cards riding existing Visa and Mastercard rails. A consumer holds stablecoins in a crypto wallet, spends them via a card linked to that wallet, and the merchant receives regular fiat currency. The consumer experience feels identical to a normal card payment. The settlement infrastructure behind it is entirely different.

Rain, a crypto native card issuer that became a direct Visa principal member, scaled approximately 38 times during 2025 to over $3 billion in annualized volume. The company raised a $250 million Series C at a $1.95 billion valuation in January 2026.

Where Consumer Adoption Is Actually Happening

The narrative around stablecoin payments has long focused on cross border B2B settlements and treasury operations. And those are indeed the most mature use cases. But consumer facing adoption is growing faster than most industry observers expected.

Several categories are driving consumer stablecoin spending in the United States.

Digital entertainment platforms were among the earliest adopters of stablecoin payments because their user base already held crypto assets. These platforms found that stablecoin transactions processed faster, cost less per transaction, and generated fewer payment disputes than traditional credit card processing. For platforms serving global audiences, stablecoins also eliminated the complexity of accepting dozens of different fiat currencies.

E-commerce is following. Shopify has either rolled out stablecoin rails for merchants or signaled plans to do so. Klarna has explored stablecoin integrations for its buy now pay later infrastructure. Amazon and Walmart are reportedly considering issuing their own stablecoins, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Freelance payments and gig economy platforms are another growth area. Workers can receive payment in stablecoins and hold them in digital wallets that earn yield through tokenized money market funds. JPMorgan launched MONY, a tokenized money market fund on Ethereum, and Goldman Sachs has partnered with BNY for similar issuance. This means stablecoin balances no longer sit idle. They can automatically sweep into interest bearing instruments and back again without the user doing anything.

Peer to peer remittances continue to grow, particularly in corridors where stablecoins offer a significant cost advantage over traditional services like Western Union or bank wire transfers. For emerging market consumers sending money home, dollar denominated stablecoins serve as both a remittance tool and a store of value against local currency volatility.

Why Stablecoins Beat Card Payments for Certain Use Cases

Stablecoins are not replacing credit cards for buying groceries. Visa’s 2026 predictions explicitly noted that cash is not disappearing and card payments remain dominant. But for specific use cases, stablecoins offer structural advantages that card rails cannot match.

Settlement speed is the most obvious. A stablecoin transaction settles in seconds with cryptographic finality. A traditional card transaction takes two to three business days to fully settle, during which the money exists in a limbo between authorization and clearing. For businesses managing cash flow, this difference matters.

Transaction costs are another advantage. Interchange fees on card transactions typically run between 1.5% and 3.5% in the United States. Stablecoin transactions on efficient networks cost fractions of a cent. For high volume businesses, the savings are substantial.

Chargebacks do not exist in the traditional sense for stablecoin transactions. Once a stablecoin payment is confirmed on chain, it is final. This eliminates the $125 billion annual chargeback problem that plagues the card industry, though it also shifts responsibility to platforms to build their own dispute resolution mechanisms.

Cross border reach is a fourth advantage. A stablecoin works identically whether the sender and receiver are in the same city or on opposite sides of the planet. No correspondent banking, no SWIFT messages, no multi day delays.

Monica Eaton, CEO of Chargebacks911, told American Banker that stablecoins will “quietly replace legacy clearing infrastructure” and predicted that their settlement function will be more important than market capitalization growth in the near term.

What 2026 Looks Like

The infrastructure for stablecoin consumer payments is now in place. The regulatory framework exists. The card networks are integrated. The issuers are scaling. The question for 2026 is how far consumer adoption extends beyond crypto native users.

Grayscale’s 2026 outlook predicts that stablecoins will be integrated into cross-border payment services, used as collateral on derivatives exchanges, appear on corporate balance sheets, and serve as an alternative to credit cards in online consumer payments.

a16z crypto published its own 2026 forecast arguing that stablecoins will shift from a niche financial tool to “the foundational settlement layer for the internet.” The firm noted that a new generation of startups is bridging the gap between stablecoins and the payment systems people already use, including QR codes, real time payment rails, and familiar card issuing platforms.

Visa estimates the stablecoin market could reach $4 trillion by 2030. The Visa 2026 predictions noted: “Thanks to the passage of the US GENIUS Act and similar laws worldwide that established a regulatory framework, we are poised to hit escape velocity in 2026.”

For US consumers, the transition will mostly be invisible. They will tap a card, scan a QR code, or click a “pay” button, and the experience will feel exactly like it does today. The difference will be underneath: stablecoins settling in seconds instead of days, at a fraction of the cost, with cryptographic proof of every transaction.

For the fintech industry, 2026 is the year when stablecoins stop being a crypto story and become a payments story. The technology has arrived. The regulation is here. The networks are live. The only remaining question is how fast consumers and merchants adopt what is, by every measurable standard, a better payment rail.