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 supply the advantages of blockchain whereas holding the cost expertise acquainted for shoppers.
“This is among the large themes of 2026: crypto turns into enmeshed extra deeply into how funds circulate via the worldwide economic system,“ Haseeb Qureshi, a managing accomplice at crypto-focused enterprise capital agency Dragonfly, posted to X Friday.
“Stablecoin playing cards are rising like loopy, all over the 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 large funding spherical got here as Rain elevated its lively card base 30-fold and its annualized cost quantity by almost 40 instances in 2025, making it one of many fastest-growing fintech firms 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 sooner settlement, decrease prices, and larger world attain whereas holding the expertise seamless for shoppers, Qureshi famous:
“They do not even know that it is crypto beneath the hood. All they know is that abruptly, they will 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 improve at an 81% Compounded Annual Development Fee 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, nevertheless, 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.
Associated: Banks should improve their blockchain infrastructure
Pantera Capital investor Mason Nystrom opposed Mohnot’s view, highlighting that stablecoin funds present retailers with prompt payouts, fast settlement, and chargeback safety:
“Stablecoin rails are coming for your complete fintech stack. Some incumbents will undertake, different[s] might be wholesale changed. Stablecoin checkout might be large.”
Stablecoin regulation is transferring ahead
The passing of the GENIUS Act within the US appeared to spice up regulatory momentum late final yr, with Canada and the UK renewing efforts to implement stablecoin frameworks in 2026 or the close to future.
Institutional adoption can 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 shopper spending in rising markets.
Journal: One metric exhibits crypto is now in a bear market: Carl ‘The Moon’
