Stablecoins Overtake Visa TPV

This signals that stablecoins are becoming the settlement rail for moving dollars across borders, while Visa remains the checkout rail at the merchant edge. The volume lead comes from a different job than card payments. Businesses and workers use stablecoins to move value between countries, currencies, and bank systems in minutes, often any time of day, then convert at the endpoint. That is where the old wire and correspondent banking stack is slowest and most expensive.

• The biggest driver is not shopping, it is cross border treasury, supplier payments, payroll, remittances, and moving into digital dollars in markets where local banking access is weak. Layer2 describes customers using USDC as a bridge asset, then paying out USD, EUR, INR, or local bank transfers from one dashboard.
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• Rain shows the other half of the stack. Stablecoins do not need to replace Visa to matter. A business can keep USDC in its own wallet, post it as collateral, and spend through a Visa card anywhere Visa is accepted. That makes stablecoins the funding layer and cards the acceptance layer.
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• The comparison with Visa is directionally important, but the volumes are not like for like. Visa reported $13.2T in payments volume for fiscal 2024 and 8% year over year growth in payments volume for the three months ended March 31, 2024. Stablecoin transfer volume counts onchain value movement, which includes many cross border settlement flows that never touch a checkout page.
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The next phase is stablecoins moving from a specialist cross border rail into the default backend for fintechs, banks, and card programs. As interoperability improves, more money will move onchain in the middle while users still see bank accounts, cards, and local payouts on the surface. That shifts the competitive fight from consumer brand alone to who controls settlement, liquidity, and corridor coverage.