Stablecoin payments grew 45% to $482 billion in the first nine months of 2026, even as the total value of stablecoins in circulation barely moved, according to a report from blockchain analytics firm Allium.
The contrast highlights a market in which existing digital dollars are being used more intensively for payments rather than expanding in supply. The total value of stablecoins in circulation stood at about $305 billion at the end of September, up just 0.4% since the start of the year, the report found.
The number of payments rose even faster than value, jumping 71% to more than 1 billion, Allium said, suggesting stablecoins are changing hands more often without much new supply entering the market.
Stablecoin-linked cards post sharp growth
Stablecoin-linked cards showed some of the fastest growth. Spending measured by Allium reached $3.9 billion through September, ten times the amount a year earlier. Small purchases under $50 accounted for 84% of the increase in card transactions.
Mastercard, Stripe and Visa expand stablecoin rails
Three announcements this week offered a glimpse of how stablecoins are becoming part of global payments.
Mastercard introduced its Global Money Platform with BVNK, the stablecoin infrastructure firm it acquired in August. The service combines traditional currency accounts, stablecoin balances, conversions, card spending and bank payouts through one connection. Banks and fintechs can use the platform to offer accounts that hold both fiat currencies and stablecoins, the firm said. Payments firms Nuvei and Marqeta are among the first customers integrating the service.
Stripe is working with Plasma, a blockchain-based financial services firm, on cards that support balances in dollars, euros, Brazilian reais, Mexican pesos and Colombian pesos, alongside eligible stablecoins. The companies said they plan to let customers spend from the balance that matches their purchase, cutting unnecessary currency conversions. Stripe's expanded card infrastructure covers more than 30 countries, with plans to reach over 100 by next year.
Visa said it is bringing stablecoins into the funding side of international payments. The company said Inyo Global, a payment orchestration firm for fintechs, money transmitters and banks, became the first provider to put Visa Direct's stablecoin prefunding service into commercial use. Payment firms can use Circle's dollar stablecoin USDC to fund cross-border payouts in nearly real time instead of waiting for traditional banking windows, while recipients can still receive money through conventional payment channels.
A small slice of a vast payments market
The growth in stablecoin payments comes with caveats. Of $97.9 trillion in raw stablecoin transfers through September, Allium classified just $2.4 trillion, or 2.5%, as end-user activity after filtering out exchange, decentralized finance and automated transactions. Its $482 billion payments estimate comes from that smaller pool, the report said.
Stablecoin cards also remain a tiny fraction of conventional payments. Allium estimated that second-quarter spending through those cards amounted to just 0.03% of Visa's $4 trillion in payment volume.
For payment companies, that leaves a large market to pursue. Nuvei CEO Phil Fayer, whose company is among the first to integrate Mastercard's new platform, said stablecoins are becoming part of how businesses move money across borders and currencies.
"The future of global commerce depends on money moving as freely as the businesses and consumers it serves, across borders, currencies and increasingly, between traditional and digital forms of money," Fayer said.
Companies increasingly want stablecoins integrated into their existing financial operations instead of running separate systems for digital assets, according to Patrick Mollard, co-founder and CEO of Paris-based Fipto, a stablecoin-powered business payments firm.
"The distinction between 'traditional' and 'digital' money is less important than giving businesses the ability to use whichever rail makes most sense for a particular payment or treasury operation," he said in a note shared with CoinDesk.
"Businesses don't want separate crypto infrastructure sitting alongside their existing financial operations," Mollard said. "They want to move between fiat and stablecoins within the same payments and treasury environment."
