2026-05-03 02:23:15
Crypto card spending hits $600 million a month with TRON taking 35% of March volume
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TRON captured 35% of crypto card payment volume in March as total spending hit $606 million. That puts crypto card spending at roughly $600 million a month, up 500% since September 2024, per PaymentScan data , making card programs one of the fastest-growing businesses on public blockchains. Visa is the rail beneath it all. The company processed roughly 90% of crypto card transactions in March, building its lead through partnerships with crypto-native infrastructure providers rather than traditional sponsor banks. Its Bridge stablecoin card program is expanding to new regions through 2026. The chain-level breakdown: TRON 35%, BNB Chain 15%, the rest split across smaller networks. TRON’s settlement layer captures a third of payment volume TRON’s share reflects where stablecoin liquidity already sits. The chain processed approximately $2 trillion in USDT transfers in the first quarter of 2026, per Messari’s TRON Q1 2026 report , with USDT accounting for 98.6% of all stablecoins on the network. TRON: USDT Supply and Transfer | Source: CryptoQuant The chain’s three-second block times and resource-based fee model make stablecoin transfers cheap and fast enough for point-of-sale flow. “Stablecoins have already become the base rails for global value movement,” TRON founder Justin Sun said in an April interview . The card data is the first month-by-month evidence that the rails are now reaching everyday spending, not just on-chain settlement. As Cryptopolitan reported in February, fintech platform Kolo integrated TRON to process more than $250 million in transaction volume, with about 30% executed directly on TRC-20 USDT rails. That single integration is the small-scale version of what the March numbers now show at the network level. Southeast Asia drives the volume Southeast Asia accounted for approximately 60% of global stablecoin payment volume during the period, with local card issuance growing 83x between 2024 and 2025. The cards serve as primary financial access for users in areas with thin or expensive banking infrastructure. That distinction explains why the cashback war among emerging issuers is heating up. Jupiter Global’s Solana-based Visa card returns 4% to 10% cashback by tier and posted 660% month-over-month growth in April. KAST, Tria, and the Solana-based Pengu Card have widened the field beyond established issuers, with Pengu enabling USDC and USDT spending at an estimated 150 million merchants globally. USDC is also gaining ground on USDT in card volume, even as USDT continues to dominate raw on-chain stablecoin supply. Stablecoins move from on-chain liquidity to consumer wallets Crypto cards sit at a structural intersection. Stablecoins handle value storage and chain-level transfer. Visa handles point-of-sale connectivity. The bridge between them has compressed exchange withdrawals, bank transfers, and settlement delays into a single tap. Industry commentator Marty Party predicted that Visa-issued stablecoin cards on Apple Pay and Android Tap will onboard 10 million users before merchants adopt native stablecoin settlement. Stablecoins are no longer competing only for on-chain liquidity. They are competing for consumer wallets. The smartest crypto minds already read our newsletter. Want in? Join them .