#Strategy加仓比特币 The crypto payment arms race is heating up, and a real contest over the implementation of stablecoins is unfolding.

A key signal on January 21 was Rain completing a $250 million Series C funding round, with a valuation approaching $2 billion. This crypto card company speaks with data — user base has surged 30-fold year-over-year, payment volume has increased 38 times, and the number of clients has surpassed 200. Data from research firm Artemis is even more staggering: crypto payments are growing at an annualized rate of 106%, with annual transaction volume reaching $18 billion.

This is not a false hype. Analyst Patrick Kim straightforwardly states that by the end of this year, crypto cards will become the main retail payment channel for stablecoins.

The current competitive landscape is divided into three routes: First, full-stack approaches like Rain, which integrate card issuance and settlement through Visa’s main membership; second, Stripe’s focus on orchestration layer solutions, with continuous acquisitions of Bridge and Zero Hash to enable merchants to settle stablecoins in a “chain-agnostic” manner; third, some projects believe that general-purpose chains like Ethereum are inherently unsuitable for payments, leading Bitfinex-supported Stable to launch a dedicated payment chain, which has already secured $2 billion in funding.

Interestingly, the growth engine comes from emerging markets. Payment demand in Africa, Latin America, and South Asia far exceeds that of Europe and the US, with Visa holding over 90% market share through its USDC-native settlement pilot, while USDT is still off-chain.