Artemis Crypto Payment Card Report: $18 Billion Scale, Silent Explosion in Crypto Payments

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Author: Artemis

Translation: Deep Tide TechFlow

Deep Tide Guide:

Cryptocurrency payments are undergoing a silent “power shift.” Artemis’s latest research shows that the crypto card market has leapt from the fringe at the beginning of 2023 to a massive $18 billion annualized market, with monthly transaction volume increasing 15-fold in just two years.

This article delves into the three layers of the crypto payment stack and reveals a surprising figure: Visa accounts for over 90% of on-chain card transaction volume. More importantly, the industry is experiencing a structural shift toward “full-stack issuance,” with companies like Rain and Reap bypassing traditional banks through direct Visa connections, fundamentally rewriting the economic model. From crypto-backed lending in India to stablecoin daily payments in Argentina, crypto cards are becoming the key infrastructure for bringing digital dollars into the real world.

Full text below:

Breaking News: We have just released the most comprehensive industry report on Crypto Cards.

This is not because it is a niche market, but because it has quietly grown into a $18 billion market. At the beginning of 2023, the monthly transaction volume for crypto cards was only about $10 million. Today, that number has surpassed $1.5 billion.

To achieve this, we spent weeks digging into data, infrastructure, and the companies building this stack. Here are our core findings:

First, let’s see what is actually happening. Crypto cards are not meant to replace Visa or Mastercard but to leverage them.

Stablecoins provide the funding for transactions, while cards provide the merchant acceptance environment.

This stack is divided into three layers:

Network Layer: Visa, Mastercard

Issuers & Program Managers: Baanx, Bridge, etc.

Consumer Apps: Wallets, exchanges (such as MetaMask, Phantom)

This is where the power struggle is most intense.

Although Visa and Mastercard each have over 130 crypto partnerships…

Visa accounts for more than 90% of on-chain card transaction volume. The reason is that they established deep partnerships with the infrastructure layer early on.

The biggest structural shift: full-stack issuers.

Companies like Rain and Reap can now act as Visa Principal Members to directly issue cards and settle transactions.

No sponsor bank needed. More control. More economics.

Geographical distribution reveals real use cases. India: $338 billion in crypto inflows. The opportunity here is crypto-backed lending (since UPI has already succeeded in the debit payment space). Argentina: practical application as stablecoin debit cards for inflation hedging.

In developed markets, crypto cards do not address “urgent needs.”

Their target is a new, high-value user base: those who already hold large stablecoin balances and want to spend them.

Our simple view: stablecoins will continue to grow, and crypto cards will scale accordingly.

They are the infrastructure bringing digital dollars into the real world.

This post is a summary of the highlights. Read the full report for an in-depth understanding.