Cryptocards have become a mass gateway to the real economy — and this is more important than the next “altseason”
While the market debates whether the “bear market” has arrived after Trump's new tariffs on Europe, a quiet shift of much larger scale is happening: stablecoins are becoming the payment standard, and cryptocards are their main conduit into everyday life.
The Artemis report shows a simple reality: crypto cards have stopped being a 'toy for traders'. They have become a payment infrastructure.
1️⃣ Numbers that cannot be ignored
According to:
monthly payment volume with crypto cards has increased from approximately $100 million at the beginning of 2023
up to $1.5 billion by the end of 2025
this is a 106% CAGR from 2023
annualized run rate — over $18 billion
And importantly: this volume has nearly caught up with P2P transfers using stablecoins (~$19 billion), which showed minimal growth during the same period.
2️⃣ Why cards are taking off while P2P grows slowly
Because cards have solved the main problem of crypto payments:
👉 businesses do not want to integrate crypto.
Merchants do not need a new POS, new legal, new risks.
They need one thing: for the client to pay as usual.
And crypto cards do just that:
payment for the store looks like a regular card transaction
and on the user's side — this is the cost of stablecoins
That is, it is a bridge that does not require the world to 'become crypto-native'.
3️⃣ This is more important than 'will Amazon accept USDT or not'
Because mass adoption rarely looks like a revolution.
More often it looks like:
💳 old rails (Visa/Mastercard)
vs.
💵 new money (stablecoins) = ✅ normal life without fanaticism
Thus, crypto becomes part of the economy: not through ideology, but through convenience.
4️⃣ What does this mean for the crypto market
This is a signal that stablecoins:
are coming out of the exchange 'waiting mode'
become a consumer payment instrument
create real demand for digital liquidity
And this perfectly aligns with what institutions already recognize: stablecoins are a bridge between traditional finance and the digital world.
Conclusion
Crypto cards are not 'just another product'.
This is proof that the integration of crypto into the real economy is already happening — just without fireworks.
And if someone is still waiting for adoption to look like 'a mass transition of stores to USDT', then the market responded more simply:
💳 First — the card.
Then — the habit.
Then — a new financial system.
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