Stablecoin card spend is growing 100% year over year, Rain exec says
Key takeaways
- This improves card economics and financial flexibility for issuers.By Francisco Rodrigues May 8, 2026, 10:11 a.m.
- Retail stablecoin card spend grew about 105% to 106% over the past year, Timoney said during a panel at Consensus Miami 2026.
- Rain provides stablecoin infrastructure for card issuers and recently became a Mastercard Principal Member, allowing it to offer credit and prepaid cards on the Mastercard network.
This improves card economics and financial flexibility for issuers.By Francisco Rodrigues May 8, 2026, 10:11 a.m. 4 min read Make preferred on What to know: Stablecoin card use is booming, with retail spend growing over 105%. Rain exec says cards could hit double-digit market share soon in some LatAm markets.Rain is using partnerships with networks like Mastercard to enable stablecoin spend through existing global merchants, avoiding "reinventing the wheel."Stablecoin settlement enables weekend/holiday settlement, reducing trapped capital by over 40%. This improves card economics and financial flexibility for issuers.Stablecoin-based cards could soon account for double-digit percentages of all cards in some Latin American markets, John Timoney, head of strategic partnerships at Rain, a payments infrastructure platform, said.
Retail stablecoin card spend grew about 105% to 106% over the past year, Timoney said during a panel at Consensus Miami 2026. Cards are physical or virtual, allowing users to spend stablecoins such as tether USDT$0.9997 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, allowing it to offer credit and prepaid cards on the Mastercard network. Rain and Mastercard are also exploring on-chain settlement for some card program flows using regulated stablecoins.