Wall Street's payment giants are not sold on crypto's usefulness in everyday transactions - at least not yet. In earnings calls this week, both Visa and Mastercard executives offered cautious assessments of digital assets, especially stablecoins, signaling that consumer demand hasn't materialized in meaningful ways. This stance has major implications for crypto cardholders who rely on Visa and Mastercard rails to spend their digital assets in the real world.
What Happened
During Q4 2025 earnings calls, Visa CEO Ryan McInerny and Mastercard CEO Michael Miebach addressed the growing stablecoin ecosystem with skepticism. McInerny was blunt: "As I've said before, in the U.S., if a consumer wants to pay for something using a digital dollar, they have ample ways to do that today. They can pay from their checking account or their savings account. It's become quite easy to do. So we don't see a lot of product market fit for stablecoin payments and consumer payments in digitally developed markets."
Mastercard struck a slightly more open tone, with Miebach saying the company is "leaning in" to emerging technologies like stablecoins and AI-powered agents, but even he framed the company's role more as enabling infrastructure than leading transformation. "For us, stablecoins are another currency we can support within our network," Miebach said, pointing to work with MetaMask, Ripple, and Gemini. However, he emphasized that the current dominant use case remains trading, not payments.
Both companies have dabbled in blockchain infrastructure - Mastercard with pilots for on-chain identity and settlement tools, and Visa with experiments in stablecoin settlement using USDC. But despite these efforts, neither is treating crypto as a near-term threat or opportunity for their core businesses.
Why People Care
The dismissive stance from Visa and Mastercard matters because these two companies control the rails that nearly every crypto card runs on. Whether you're using a Coinbase Card, Crypto.com Visa, Nexo Card, or any other crypto spending solution, you're ultimately relying on Visa or Mastercard's infrastructure to convert your digital assets into merchant-acceptable payments at the point of sale.
When the CEOs of these networks publicly state they "don't see product-market fit" for stablecoins in consumer payments, it signals that innovation in crypto-native payment rails will not come from the incumbents. This has several implications:
- Crypto cards will remain conversion-based (crypto-to-fiat at checkout) rather than native stablecoin rails
- Innovation will come from challengers, not card networks
- Self-custody payment solutions will need to bypass traditional rails entirely
- The gap between on-chain activity and merchant acceptance will persist
What Actually Broke
The disconnect between Visa/Mastercard's dismissal and on-chain reality is stark. According to data from Glassnode, Bitcoin alone settled over $25 trillion worth of transactions in 2025 - more than Visa ($17 trillion) and Mastercard ($11 trillion) combined.
While Bitcoin's volume includes high-frequency and large institutional transfers, the size reflects growing blockchain demand across financial applications. Yet Visa's CEO argues consumers "have ample ways" to pay with digital dollars already, completely missing the point.
Stablecoins are meant to make payments faster by allowing money to move directly between parties on a blockchain, without going through banks or card networks. Unlike traditional payments, which can take days to settle, especially across borders, stablecoin transactions can clear in seconds and operate around the clock, including weekends and holidays.
JP Morgan described this advantage in a September report, calling stablecoins "a digital, on-chain form of fiat money" that are "easy to self-custody and transact" and "fast, particularly in the context of cross-border money movement." The bank said stablecoins could even be "a better form than fiat" in some situations, thanks to lower costs and around-the-clock settlement.
But the report also warned of risks, including the potential for a destabilizing run on stablecoins. "The collapse of TerraUSD in May 2022 highlights just how quickly a run can occur, in an asset class that trades 24/7," analyst Joyce Ho wrote.
This risk aversion likely explains why Visa and Mastercard remain cautious - they're optimizing for stability and regulatory compliance, not innovation velocity.
What This Means for Your Money
If you're holding crypto and want to spend it in the real world, Visa and Mastercard's stance means:
Short-term (2026-2027):
- Crypto cards will continue to use the existing conversion model (crypto sold to fiat at checkout)
- Fees will remain higher than native stablecoin rails
- Settlement times will remain slow (T+2 or longer for merchant-side settlement)
- Geographic restrictions will persist (countries without Visa/MC support can't access crypto cards)
Medium-term (2028-2030):
- Alternative payment rails will emerge (Lightning Network for Bitcoin, direct merchant integrations for stablecoins)
- Regulatory frameworks may force Visa/MC to integrate stablecoins more deeply
- Self-custody solutions that bypass card networks entirely will gain traction
What to do now:
- Continue using crypto cards for convenience, but understand you're paying a "conversion tax" to use legacy rails
- Watch for direct merchant integrations (some e-commerce platforms already accept USDC directly)
- Consider Lightning Network wallets for Bitcoin spending (instant, low-fee, no card network needed)
- Diversify across multiple crypto cards to reduce single-point-of-failure risk
How This Relates to Crypto Cards
Every major crypto card today relies on Visa or Mastercard rails. This creates a dependency that limits innovation:
- Coinbase Card (Visa): Converts crypto to USD at checkout, settles via Visa network
- Crypto.com Visa (Visa): Same model, plus staking rewards
- Nexo Card (Mastercard): Uses crypto as collateral for credit line, settles in fiat
- Binance Card (Visa): Direct crypto conversion at point of sale
When Visa's CEO says "we don't see product-market fit," he's essentially saying these cards will remain niche products that Visa tolerates but doesn't prioritize.
The exception is emerging self-custody cards like Tria, which use account abstraction to enable spending directly from self-custodied wallets. But even these solutions currently rely on traditional rails for the final merchant settlement.
The real innovation will come when merchants accept stablecoins directly, bypassing card networks entirely. Until then, crypto cardholders are stuck with the conversion model - and the fees that come with it.
FAQ
Why do Visa and Mastercard resist stablecoins if they could reduce costs? Because their business model is built on being the intermediary. Stablecoins enable direct peer-to-peer payments, cutting out the middleman (Visa/MC). They have no incentive to cannibalize their own revenue.
Doesn't Bitcoin settling $25T vs Visa's $17T prove there's demand? Yes, but most of that volume is not consumer spending - it's institutional transfers, exchange arbitrage, and high-frequency trading. Visa is correct that consumer retail spending on stablecoins remains low in developed markets. The question is whether that's because consumers don't want it, or because infrastructure doesn't support it yet.
What about SoFi's crypto push mentioned in the article? SoFi is a digital bank and fintech firm that's leaning into crypto more aggressively. They reported over 63,000 accounts actively buying, selling, and holding digital assets in Q4 2025, despite the option only becoming fully available in late December. CEO Anthony Noto said SoFi is "moving with urgency to lead the next phase of financial services by delivering crypto and blockchain innovation backed by bank-grade stability and security." This represents a challenger approach - build crypto-native features while still operating within regulated banking frameworks.
Will Visa and Mastercard eventually support native stablecoin payments? Likely, but only when regulation forces their hand or when the competitive threat becomes existential. Both companies are running pilots (Visa with USDC settlement, Mastercard with on-chain identity), but these are defensive research projects, not strategic priorities.
What's the fastest way to spend stablecoins without Visa/MC rails? Direct merchant integration. Some e-commerce platforms (Shopify via crypto payment processors, certain ticketing platforms, some luxury goods retailers) accept USDC or USDT directly. For Bitcoin, Lightning Network wallets enable instant, low-fee payments at supported merchants.
Overview
Visa and Mastercard's dismissal of stablecoins for consumer payments highlights the structural conflict between traditional payment networks and crypto-native rails. While Bitcoin settled $25 trillion in 2025 (exceeding Visa and Mastercard combined), the card networks argue there's no product-market fit for stablecoins in developed markets where consumers already have "ample ways" to pay digitally. This stance means crypto cardholders will remain dependent on conversion-based models (crypto-to-fiat at checkout) rather than native stablecoin rails, preserving higher fees and slower settlement times. Mastercard is slightly more open, positioning stablecoins as "another currency we can support," but even they emphasize trading over payments as the dominant use case. SoFi represents the challenger approach, building crypto features within regulated banking frameworks. For crypto card users, the takeaway is clear: innovation will come from challengers and self-custody solutions that bypass traditional rails, not from incumbents protecting their intermediary revenue.
Recommended Reading
Sources
Actionable takeaway: Continue using crypto cards for convenience, but understand you're paying a "conversion tax" to use legacy Visa/Mastercard rails. Watch for direct merchant stablecoin integrations and Lightning Network wallets to bypass card networks entirely for lower fees and faster settlement.
