An trade chief mentioned stablecoin-powered playing cards are shaping as much as be one of many largest crypto themes of 2026, which search to offer the advantages of blockchain whereas retaining the cost expertise acquainted for customers.
“This is likely one of the huge themes of 2026: crypto turns into enmeshed extra deeply into how funds circulate by means of the worldwide financial system,“ Haseeb Qureshi, a managing associate at crypto-focused enterprise capital agency Dragonfly, posted to X Friday.
“Stablecoin playing cards are rising like loopy, in every single place on the planet,” the VC added after stablecoin startup Rain raised $250 million in a funding spherical that pushed its valuation to almost $2 billion.
The massive funding spherical got here as Rain elevated its energetic card base 30-fold and its annualized cost quantity by almost 40 occasions in 2025, making it one of many fastest-growing fintech corporations globally.
The platform helps main stablecoins, together with Tether (USDT) and USDC (USDC), throughout a number of blockchain networks, together with Ethereum, Solana, Tron, and Stellar.
Rain is a part of a brand new wave of stablecoin startups integrating blockchain into cost programs for quicker settlement, decrease prices, and higher world attain whereas retaining the expertise seamless for customers, Qureshi famous:
“They do not even know that it is crypto below the hood. All they know is that impulsively, they’ll pay folks and purchase stuff in {dollars}, any time, anyplace, and all of it ‘simply works.’”
It comes as Bloomberg Intelligence predicted on Thursday that stablecoin cost flows would enhance at an 81% Compounded Annual Progress Charge to $56.6 trillion by 2030.
Stablecoin playing cards might face restricted use in developed markets
Not everyone seems to be satisfied that stablecoin funds will problem conventional playing cards in developed international locations, nonetheless, with Higher Tomorrow Ventures GP, Sheel Mohnot, stating that stablecoin service provider acceptance lacks a captive viewers, exclusivity, and killer incentives to make a significant change.
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Pantera Capital investor Mason Nystrom opposed Mohnot’s view, highlighting that stablecoin funds present retailers with instantaneous payouts, speedy settlement, and chargeback safety:
“Stablecoin rails are coming for your complete fintech stack. Some incumbents will undertake, different[s] will likely be wholesale changed. Stablecoin checkout will likely be huge.”
Stablecoin regulation is transferring ahead
The passing of the GENIUS Act within the US appeared to spice up regulatory momentum late final 12 months, with Canada and the UK renewing efforts to implement stablecoin frameworks in 2026 or the close to future.
Institutional adoption can also be ramping up, with remittance platform Western Union set to launch a stablecoin settlement system on the Solana blockchain within the first half of 2026 alongside a stablecoin card to allow client spending in rising markets.
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