Crypto card spending climbs to $600M monthly, up 211% year over year

Crypto card spending hit $600M in March 2026; Visa handled 97% of volume

Monthly card volume tripled year over year to $600M in March 2026, up 211% from $187M. The growth shows real point‑of‑sale usage, not a short‑term spike (The Block data).

Cumulative volume reached $6.5B across 21.4M transactions. Visa processed $581.8M in March, roughly 97% of total (The Block data).

How it works. Users hold balances in stablecoins or other assets. The card converts at the terminal into local fiat via network rails, mainly Visa. No separate exchange withdrawal or bank transfer step. Onchain settlement, standard merchant acceptance (Coinspeaker).

Chain mix shifted to low fees. TRON took 35% of March volume. BNB Chain had 15%. This reflects fee economics over preference versus Ethereum (The Block data).

Regional tilt is clear. Southeast Asia drove about 60% of stablecoin payments in the period. Local card issuance grew 83x from 2024 to 2025 (The Block data).

Issuer landscape expanded. New programs include KAST, Tria, and the Solana-based Pengu Card, which enables USDC and USDT spending at an estimated 150M merchants globally (Coinspeaker).

U.S. traction rose. Merchant adoption reached 39% in the period, indicating faster domestic absorption than prior years (Coinspeaker).

The run rate held. Growth averaged up for six straight quarters, underscoring durability of card‑based crypto payments at POS (The Block data).

Source: The Block data dashboard