Stablecoin payment activity kept rising in 2026 even as supply was largely flat, according to a new report from blockchain analytics firm Allium. The report said stablecoin payments reached $482 billion through September, up 45% from a year earlier.
That stands in contrast to the broader stablecoin market. Allium said the total value of stablecoins in circulation was about $305 billion at the end of September, only 0.4% higher than at the start of the year.
Payment count grew even faster. The report said the number of stablecoin payments rose 71% to more than 1 billion through September, indicating that the stablecoins already in circulation are changing hands more often without much new supply entering the market.
Card spending tied to stablecoins posted some of the fastest growth
Allium said stablecoin-linked cards were among the fastest-growing segments. Spending measured by the firm reached $3.9 billion through September, ten times the amount recorded a year earlier.
Small-ticket purchases drove much of that increase. Transactions under $50 accounted for 84% of the growth in card transactions.
Mastercard, Stripe and Visa each rolled out new payment services this week
Three announcements earlier this week showed how stablecoins are being folded into global payments infrastructure.
Mastercard on Thursday introduced its Global Money Platform with BVNK, the stablecoin infrastructure firm that CoinDesk said it acquired in August. The service combines traditional currency accounts, stablecoin balances, conversions, card spending and bank payouts through a single connection. Mastercard said banks and fintechs can use the platform to offer accounts that hold both fiat currencies and stablecoins.
Payments firms Nuvei and Marqeta are among the first customers integrating the service.
Stripe, meanwhile, is working with blockchain-based financial services firm Plasma XPL$0.07875 on cards that support balances in U.S. 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 the purchase currency, reducing unnecessary foreign-exchange conversions.
Stripe’s expanded card infrastructure now covers more than 30 countries, with plans to reach more than 100 next year.
Visa said it is bringing stablecoins into the funding side of international payments. The company said Inyo Global, a payment orchestration firm serving fintechs, money transmitters and banks, became the first provider to put Visa Direct’s stablecoin prefunding service into commercial use.
Under that setup, payment firms can use Circle’s dollar-backed stablecoin USDC USDC$1.0003 to fund cross-border payouts in near real time instead of waiting for traditional banking windows, while recipients can still receive money through conventional payment channels.
Only a small share of raw stablecoin transfers qualifies as end-user payments
Allium also attached an important caveat to the growth figures. Of the $97.9 trillion in raw stablecoin transfers through September, only $2.4 trillion, or 2.5%, was classified as end-user activity after filtering out exchange flows, decentralized finance activity and automated transactions. The report said its $482 billion payment estimate was derived from that smaller pool.
Stablecoin card spending also remains tiny relative to 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 still open.
Businesses want stablecoins inside existing treasury and payment operations
Nuvei CEO Phil Fayer 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.
The recent moves by Mastercard, Stripe and Visa to incorporate stablecoins into blockchain-based payment rails add to that direction.
Patrick Mollard, co-founder and CEO of Paris-based business payments firm Fipto, told CoinDesk that companies increasingly want stablecoins integrated into their existing financial operations instead of running separate systems for digital assets.
In a note shared with CoinDesk, he said: “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.”
Mollard added: “Businesses don’t want separate crypto infrastructure sitting alongside their existing financial operations. They want to move between fiat and stablecoins within the same payments and treasury environment.”
