Stablecoin adoption pushes crypto card payments to $12.5 billion record

Crypto card payment volumes reached a new high of $12.5 billion, a 140% increase over the year so far, based on paymentscan.xyz data first reported by The Kobeissi Letter.

That amount also represents a 247% jump compared with October 2025 levels.

According to The Kobeissi Letter, the growth stems from increasing stablecoin use as a payment method and a wider effort toward lower-cost, quicker international transfers.

QR-code payments also show strength, with demand for that form of spending boosting activated cards on Jupiter Spend, a major on-chain card issuer, by 55% compared with the prior quarter.

“Crypto cards are the next phase of crypto adoption,” The Kobeissi Letter stated.

These numbers arrive as large firms enter the crypto card market. Fold Holdings (NASDAQ: FLD) revealed earlier this year that it began distributing its Fold Bitcoin Credit Card to some waitlist users, with broader availability coming in groups over the next weeks and months.

Operating on Visa and using Stripe Issuing, the card is usable at 175 million merchants. It provides a baseline 1.5% bitcoin cash back, which can reach up to 4% via activity-linked bonuses and partner deals. Those who settle their statement in bitcoin receive an additional 0.5% back.

Aven follows a separate strategy. Its Aven Bitcoin Visa Card, launched at the Bitcoin Conference 2026 in Las Vegas, allows users to borrow as much as $1 million backed by their bitcoin without having to sell, with APRs from 7.99% and repayment periods of up to a decade.

BitGo holds the collateral, and Coastal Community Bank is the card issuer.