Crypto Payments Hit A Turning Point: Visa Card Usage Skyrockets Over 500%

Visa's crypto-linked cards just crossed a threshold that traditional finance can't ignore—transaction volume exploded by more than fivefold in a single year.

The Mainstream Checkout

Forget speculative trading. This surge signals crypto's quiet invasion of the daily spend—groceries, subscriptions, morning coffee. The infrastructure built for digital speculation now fuels real-world commerce, bypassing the old guard's payment rails.

Why the Tipping Point?

Merchant adoption finally meets user convenience. Networks process crypto, settle in fiat, and shield businesses from volatility. Consumers get the spendable utility they craved, without the capital gains headache on every latte. It’s a seamless bridge that actually works.

The Cynical Take

Wall Street spent a decade dismissing crypto as a toy. Now, its preferred plastic—the Visa card—becomes the vector for its own disruption. The irony is almost as rich as the interchange fees they're missing out on.

The narrative shifts from 'digital gold' to 'digital cash.' When a payment giant's metrics flash green by over 500%, it's not a trend—it's a new reality. The turning point isn't coming; it's already swiped.

Major Cards Driving The Growth

Most of the rise was concentrated in a small group of cards. Data shows that EtherFi’s Visa card accounted for $55.4 million of the total, more than double second-place Cypher’s $20.5 million. The six cards tracked include offerings from GnosisPay, Cypher, EtherFi, Avici Money, Exa App, and Moonwell.

Spending Patterns And Data Source

Data from Dune Analytics shows the figures measure net spend on Visa-issued crypto cards run by blockchain projects partnering with Visa. The growth appears to be steady across the year rather than a single spike, with month-by-month net spend rising through 2025.

According to Polygon researcher @obchakevich_ on X Sunday, these numbers show that crypto cards are gaining traction with users and highlight how important crypto and stablecoins have become for Visa’s worldwide payment network.

. @Visa continues its expansion into crypto, steadily increasing spend volume through crypto cards such as @gnosispay, @ether_fi cash, @Cypher_HQ_, @AviciMoney, @Exa_App, @MoonwellDeFi card, and others.

Looking at the analytics for 6 crypto cards on Visa, we can see rapid… pic.twitter.com/Z5JzpBggI9

— Alex (@obchakevich_) January 4, 2026

Analysts and researchers say this jump suggests some crypto cards are moving into regular everyday use for certain groups of customers. Based on reports, cardholders are using crypto balances to pay for routine purchases instead of always converting to fiat first. That shift could make stablecoins and crypto rails more relevant for payments firms and banks.

Visa has been active on the stablecoin front and has signaled plans to support broader stablecoin infrastructure for payments. Reports show Visa launched initiatives to help banks and partners build out stablecoin solutions and set up advisory work around tokenized money late in 2025. Those moves line up with the card-use data, which some observers see as a practical test of crypto payment flows at scale.

Growth on a small set of cards does not mean mass adoption yet. Observers caution that regulation, consumer protection, and merchant acceptance remain key constraints. At the same time, the numbers do show that crypto-linked payments are no longer just a niche experiment; they are being used for real transactions by measurable groups of users.

Featured image from Cebuana Lhuillier, chart from TradingView