#数字资产市场动态 Stablecoin Payment Race Heats Up, Crypto Card Sector Sees Funding Boom

In mid-January, major news came from the crypto payment infrastructure sector—well-known card-based company Rain completed a $2.5 billion Series C funding round, with valuation approaching $2 billion. This funding milestone marks the official intensification of the competition around "how stablecoins can truly enter daily consumption," with various players showcasing their unique approaches.

**Payment Volume Explodes**

According to the latest data from research firm Artemis, transaction volume in the crypto payment sector is growing at an annualized rate of 106%, reaching a total of $18 billion. How impressive is this figure? It’s nearly close to the scale of stablecoin peer-to-peer transfers—about $19 billion. In other words, payments are becoming the core use case for stablecoins.

The research team predicts that by the end of this year, crypto cards will surpass other forms and become the primary retail payment gateway for stablecoins.

**Three Paths in Competition**

Currently, competition is mainly unfolding along three different technological routes:

1. **Full-stack Model**. Rain has become a Visa principal member, handling the entire infrastructure from card issuance, settlement, to risk control. User numbers have increased 30-fold year-over-year, and payment transaction volume has grown 38 times. They now serve over 200 clients, and this growth curve is quite crazy.

2. **Layered Orchestration Model**. Companies like Stripe have entered the scene, acquiring Bridge for $1.1 billion and investing heavily to acquire Zero Hash, valued at around $1 billion. These large tech and financial firms are betting on an "invisible blockchain" future—merchants won’t need to care about which chain underpins the system, as long as they can accept and settle stablecoins.

3. **Dedicated Chain Solution**. Some players believe that general-purpose chains like Ethereum are not designed for payments. Therefore, the Stable project supported by Bitfinex launched a blockchain dedicated to payment scenarios in 2025, already raising $2 billion in pre-funding. The goal is to achieve a near-zero gas fee experience for stablecoin transfers.

**Emerging Markets Are the Growth Engine**

Geographically, this wave of growth is not coming from developed countries. Africa, Latin America, South Asia—these regions have far greater demand for stablecoin payments than Europe and North America. What’s the real situation? Visa controls over 90% of the crypto card payment share, mainly because their stablecoin settlement pilot natively supports USDC, while USDT has not yet been integrated into this system.

This indicates that the next big opportunity for stablecoin payments lies in markets with insufficient traditional financial services and a stronger need for digital assets.