TLDR
- Stripe plans to expand its stablecoin card programs to more than 100 countries by the end of 2026.
- Henri Stern, co-founder of Privy, now leads stablecoins and crypto across all of Stripe.
- Stablecoin card spending hit about $1.2 billion last month, three times higher than a year ago.
- Current card customers include Kraken, Ramp, and Morse.
- Stripe is also looking into tokenized deposits and DeFi tools, though stablecoins remain its main focus.
Stripe is growing its stablecoin card business on a global scale. The payments company told CoinDesk it expects its stablecoin card programs to reach more than 100 countries by the end of the year.
⚡️ADOPTION: Stripe plans to take 'stablecoin cards' GLOBAL, expanding the program to more than 100 countries by year-end.
More than 5 MILLION businesses already use Stripe directly or through connected platforms.
Stablecoin card spending reached about $1.2 BILLION last month,… pic.twitter.com/vsmtU1D39b
— Coin Bureau (@coinbureau) October 5, 2026
Henri Stern is leading this push. He co-founded Privy, a crypto wallet infrastructure company that Stripe bought last year. Stern now oversees stablecoins and crypto across all of Stripe.
Stripe already works with several companies that use its stablecoin cards. These include the crypto exchange Kraken, the fintech company Ramp, and the payments app Morse.
Stablecoin Card Spending Is Growing Fast
Stablecoin cards are becoming a bigger part of the digital dollar market, which is worth more than $300 billion. Data from Paymentscan shows that about $1.2 billion in stablecoins were spent through cards last month.
That amount is three times higher than it was a year earlier. Still, it is a small piece of the overall global card payments market.
The growth shows that people are using stablecoins for more than just crypto trading. More users are spending them on everyday purchases and cross-border payments.
Stripe’s plan is to connect stablecoins to systems it has already built. The company has issued more than 400 million cards since 2018. It has also processed hundreds of billions of dollars in card payments.
Stripe combines this card business with Bridge, a stablecoin infrastructure company it bought for $1.1 billion in 2024. For a company like Ramp, this setup could allow it to offer corporate cards in new countries. It would not need to build separate banking connections in each market.
Kraken has also looked at letting customers spend directly from accounts where they hold digital assets.
Stripe Is Building a Wider Crypto Payments Network
Stripe has made several moves to support this strategy. After buying Bridge and Privy, it partnered with crypto investment firm Paradigm to build Tempo, a blockchain made for payments.
Stripe is also a founding investor in Open Standard. That company is building Open USD, a stablecoin meant to compete with Circle’s USDC and Tether’s USDT.
Zach Abrams, who co-founded Bridge, recently moved to run Open Standard full time.
Stern said these products are designed to work together, but not force people into one system. He said someone using Stripe, Bridge, Privy, Tempo, and Open USD should find that everything feels connected.
Many of Stripe’s current card programs use Circle’s USDC. But Stern said Stripe wants to stay open to different stablecoins and blockchains.
He said Stripe needs to support both stablecoin-only users and the millions of people who still use regular currency through Stripe. Stern added that crypto’s value comes from its open structure, and Stripe wants users to be able to mix and match tools as they choose.
Beyond cards, Stripe is exploring tokenized deposits and decentralized finance, or DeFi, tools. The company is also looking at accepting more types of digital assets as payments.
Still, Stern said most of Stripe’s current work is focused on stablecoins. The card expansion to more than 100 countries remains the company’s main goal for this year.
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