According to Woofun AI, the stablecoin card market has officially entered a "high-growth phase." Although its scale remains a tiny fraction of the traditional credit card market, its growth momentum is remarkable.
Visa (V) cryptocurrency business head Cuy Sheffield pointed out that card issuers are accelerating the integration of USD-denominated tokens with existing credit card networks, rather than passively waiting for merchants to directly accept cryptocurrencies. This strategic shift has become the core driving force behind the industry's explosive growth.
On the macro data front, Paymentscan statistics show that as of September 30, total stablecoin card spending climbed to $1.17 billion, setting a new historical monthly record and surpassing August levels. Notably, transaction count slightly declined from 11.07 million in August to 11 million, and active addresses also fell from 287,634 to 283,761, but the average transaction amount jumped to $107. Woofun AI data indicates that this "volume down, value up" structure suggests the market processed more money through fewer transactions in September. Since Paymentscan only tracks addresses rather than users, and leading project RedotPay does not disclose active addresses, actual user activity may be higher than the reported figures.
In terms of on-chain distribution and project competition, the Base chain supported by Coinbase (COIN) captured a 27.5% share with $216.8 million in spending, firmly holding the top position among blockchain platforms. It was followed by Optimism ($127 million), Solana ($109.3 million), Stellar ($69.3 million), Polygon ($50.9 million), Ethereum ($49.5 million), and Plasma ($38.3 million), with another $127.8 million spread across the remaining 11 blockchains. When including off-chain settlement data, total spending in September reached $1.13 billion.
In project rankings, RedotPay led by a wide margin with $401.9 million in 30-day spending (approximately $4.9 billion annualized); EtherFi ranked second with $127.4 million (approximately $1.5 billion annualized); KAST ranked third with $113.1 million (approximately $1.4 billion annualized); Karta and Wirex One ranked fourth and fifth with $48.7 million and $46.9 million in 30-day spending (approximately $592.8 million and $570.4 million annualized, respectively). In terms of growth rate, Wirex One led with a 40.1% increase, EtherFi grew 20.3%, Karta grew 14.4%, KAST grew 11.1%, while RedotPay grew 3%.
Tiger Research assessed that the industry focus is shifting from pure payment tools to everyday financial partnerships. Drawing an analogy to debit cards before commercialization in the 1990s, stablecoin cards can leverage existing networks to circumvent merchant acceptance barriers, but they remain constrained in core financial scenarios such as payroll transfers, recurring expenses, and primary account management. The key to future competition lies in whether card issuers can seize the penetration opportunities in everyday financial transactions within niche markets not yet covered by banks and global payment giants.
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