The competition for stablecoin payments is heating up, with Rain's nearly $2 billion valuation igniting the battle for crypto card payment stacks

With the cryptocurrency card infrastructure company Rain completing a $250 million Series C funding round this month and reaching a valuation of nearly $2 billion, competition in the crypto payment sector around "how stablecoins are truly spent" is rapidly intensifying.

Research firm Artemis data shows that the scale of cryptocurrency card payments is growing at an annualized rate of 106%, with an annualized transaction volume reaching $18 billion, close to the scale of approximately $19 billion in stablecoin peer-to-peer transfers. Artemis researcher Patrick Kim expects that by the end of this year, cryptocurrency cards will become the primary retail payment scenario for stablecoins.

Currently, this "payment stack battle" is unfolding along three main paths: first, the full-stack issuance model. Rain, in collaboration with Hong Kong-based Reap, has become a principal member of Visa, integrating complete infrastructure such as card issuance and settlement, bypassing the traditional banking system. Rain disclosed that its card user base has grown 30 times year-on-year, with payment volumes increasing 38 times, and the platform now has over 200 clients.

Second, the orchestration layer model. Stripe's acquisition of Bridge for $1.1 billion and the approximately $1 billion valuation of Zero Hash represents a bet by large tech and financial infrastructure companies on "chain-agnostic" solutions, helping merchants accept and settle stablecoins without concern for the underlying blockchain.

Third, payment-specific blockchains. Some new players believe that general-purpose chains like Ethereum were not designed for payments. Supported by Bitfinex, Stable is set to launch a payment-focused blockchain by the end of 2025 and has already secured approximately $2 billion in pre-funding, aiming to achieve a stablecoin transfer experience without additional gas costs.

Geographically, emerging markets are the core driving force behind the growth of stablecoin payments. The real payment demand in Africa, Latin America, and South Asia is significantly higher than in Europe and North America. Data shows that Visa currently holds over 90% of the on-chain card payment market share, primarily due to its support for USDC in native stablecoin settlement pilots, while USDT has not yet been incorporated into this system.