From Promise to Proven: How Stablecoins Are Reshaping Global Payments
Stablecoins are entering their infrastructure era
After years of speculation and volatility in broader crypto markets, stablecoins have emerged as a credible way to store and transmit value—especially across borders. Over the past 12 months alone, stablecoin transaction volume (adjusted to filter out activity like high-frequency trading, bots, and redundant internal transactions) has grown from just $559B in 2020 to over $8T in 2025 (Visa On-Chain Analytics)*.
That kind of scale indicates that interest in the stablecoin market is no longer an ephemeral signal of crypto enthusiasm, but concrete proof that a new set of rails is taking shape within the global payments ecosystem.
What makes stablecoins compelling is the fact that they solve persistent and deep-rooted financial problems, including:
- Reducing settlement delays and counterparty risk
- Mitigating foreign exchange (FX) friction
- Preserving purchasing power in unstable currency environments
- Enabling new financial applications and global platforms
But like any technology moving from experimentation to actual use, stablecoins need robust infrastructure to cross the chasm. In this ebook, we explore what that infrastructure looks like, where stablecoin-backed payment models are gaining traction, and how Lithic is enabling programs to launch and scale in production today.
Stablecoin adjusted transaction volume*
*Adjusted stablecoin transaction volume filters out certain activity like high-frequency trading, bots, and redundant internal transactions from complex smart contracts to arrive at a volume estimate that more closely represents actual stablecoin activity. Source: https://visaonchainanalytics.com/
What’s driving stablecoin adoption?
The demand for stablecoins is coming from global businesses solving real-world problems and traditional players across the payments landscape are paying attention. Both Visa and Mastercard have begun stablecoin settlement pilots. Forward-looking regulators are beginning to differentiate stablecoins from broader crypto markets. And infrastructure partners like Lithic are working to make spending stablecoins as easy as spending dollars. These are some of the most popular use cases:
Stablecoins reduce friction in international value transfers. In countries where traditional banking access is limited or where SWIFT transfers are prohibitively slow and expensive, stablecoins enable faster and (in some cases) cheaper money movement.
Stablecoins eliminate the settlement gaps inherent in wire-based card programs, which pause over weekends and holidays requiring higher pre-funding. With 24/7/365 settlement capabilities, businesses can move capital across time zones and jurisdictions continuously, reducing float and improving capital efficiency.
As companies hire remote workers and contractors globally, stablecoins provide a common-denominator currency that enables real-time wage distribution without the FX fees or regulatory hurdles.
Web3 and fintech-native platforms are looking to let users spend stablecoin balances directly, with no conversion necessary. These platforms see stablecoins not just as a store of value, but as a spendable currency.
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Stablecoins, deposit tokens, and the tokenized money spectrum
As stablecoin usage matures, it’s important to recognize that not all tokenized currencies are created equal. Two dominant models are beginning to emerge and both instruments aim to modernize money movement by combining the reliability of fiat value with the programmability of digital assets.
Why cards provide the best off-ramp for stablecoins
Despite advances in crypto payments, the most popular way to spend money remains unchanged: cards.
For consumers who receive, earn, or hold stablecoins, cards offer the simplest way to access and use those balances. They require no crypto literacy, no new behavior, and no learning curve. They work in stores, they work online, and they integrate seamlessly into both personal and business spending workflows.
That’s why cards are increasingly the final mile in stablecoin-backed payment ecosystems.
Lithic is making stablecoin-backed cards accessible and flexible by allowing card providers to launch and scale prepaid, debit, and secured charge cards without being restricted within one construct.
Anyone with a card can spend stablecoin-backed USD, regardless of local merchant or exchange infrastructure.
Stablecoins and cards: real-world examples
Here are just some of the ways cards can be used to easily deploy stablecoins in real-world use cases. Lithic supports each of these use cases in production with robust issuer processing infrastructure that simplifies stablecoin reconciliation and compliance.
A remittance recipient who spends USDC locally uses a branded debit card to circumvent the slow, costly traditional remittance networks that often take days and impose high fees.
Instead of relying on cash pickup locations or intermediary banks, the recipient gains instant access to funds in a currency that holds its value and can use those funds for everyday expenses with a familiar card experience.
An international freelancer paid in stablecoin uses a card for everyday purchases while bypassing the delays and fees of traditional cross-border transfers.
Instead of waiting days for a wire or losing value to currency conversion, they receive USDC instantly and can spend it virtually anywhere, thanks to a card program that facilitates fiat spending backed by stablecoin balances.
A web3 wallet provider issues cards that enable global retail spending, bridging the gap between on-chain balances and real-world commerce.
Users can hold stablecoins in a crypto wallet and immediately spend them via card at any merchant that accepts Visa or Mastercard, without needing to first convert to fiat or withdraw through an exchange. This makes the experience feel seamless and native, while giving wallet providers a powerful way to drive usage and retention.
Why legacy infrastructure doesn’t cut it
Most legacy platforms are ill-equipped to handle the flexible, always-on nature of stablecoin payments. They frequently face authorization delays, unable to validate transactions against external or custom ledgers in real time. Their integrations are inflexible, with systems often requiring middleware, custom builds, or long certification cycles. And they provide minimal reporting and settlement visibility, making reconciliation difficult and risk management reactive.
In contrast, Lithic was engineered for the realities of global, 24/7 payments. While much of the last decade’s fintech innovation has focused on improving the efficiency and usability of front-end money movement and payments experiences for consumers and businesses, we have been dedicated to rebuilding the processing and settlement layer that makes those experiences reliable at scale.
How Lithic is enabling stablecoin-backed programs
We designed Lithic’s issuer processing platform from the ground up to eliminate the constraints of legacy systems: batch windows, internet-routed connections, and downtime for maintenance. Lithic operates a hybrid architecture that combines cloud scalability with the deterministic performance of dedicated physical datacenters: our platform connects directly to major international card networks (Visa, Mastercard, American Express) and the Federal Reserve through private fiber circuits.
The result is a processing topology with 99.99%+ uptime without the need for scheduled maintenance downtime, sub-10-millisecond replication latency, and multiple redundant paths across independent regions. Even if the public internet were to go down, Lithic-issued cards would continue to work anywhere, anytime.
What sets Lithic’s platform apart:
Direct to metal, ensuring fast, clean connections to the major networks
Multi-currency and multi-network right out of the box
Proven in production, powering card programs across USD, CAD, GBP, and more
Optimized for speed, with companies launching new programs in weeks, not months
Trusted by top platforms, with support for fraud rules, chargebacks, and reconciliation
That foundation makes Lithic uniquely positioned to support the next generation of stablecoin-backed products. As stablecoins open faster, cheaper ways to move value globally, Lithic provides the back-end infrastructure that turns those stablecoin balances into globally spendable assets with compliant and scalable card programs.
Lithic's platform delivers:
Real-time authorization decisioning through our Authorization Stream Access (ASA), giving platforms up to five seconds to evaluate transactions against custom or third-party ledgers
Flexible integration paths, whether a platform brings its own wallet or works with partners
Direct-to-metal connections to global card networks and U.S. Federal Reserve payment systems
Global physical card printing and fulfillment through trusted, certified partners
24/7 fiat processing with no batch windows, enabling real-time settlement for stablecoin- funded programs
99.99%+ processing reliability through a resilient, multi-region architecture
Native fraud, compliance, and velocity controls to match the protections already used in fiat card programs
Dispute and chargeback management at scale with streamlined, API-driven workflows
How Lithic and Rain are making stablecoin-backed cards a reality
Rain is one of the most established players in the stablecoin ecosystem, offering stablecoin-native accounts, on- and off-ramps, and cards at impressive scale. They had built enterprise-grade stablecoin infrastructure supporting payments in more than 150 countries—but their partners faced a critical bottleneck.
To scale their card programs globally, Rain needed processing technology that could match their ambition, with fast integration, real-time authorization, and the flexibility to launch in weeks rather than months.
When Rain needed a processor to enable card-based spending of stablecoin balances, they chose Lithic. Together, we’re bringing stablecoin-backed card programs to market that:
Integrate seamlessly with Rain’s platform
Rain’s stablecoin-native issuance infrastructure connects directly with Lithic’s processing rails.
Validate transactions in real time
Lithic’s Authorization Stream Access (ASA) checks every transaction against Rain’s ledger with advanced fraud prevention at scale.
Enable 24/7 global settlement
Lithic and Rain enable transaction processing and stablecoin settlement across 150+ countries with continuous clearing, eliminating weekend and holiday delays.
Deliver instant spendability
Users can spend stablecoin balances directly via card—with no conversion, no friction, and no delays.
Here’s how the partnership works: stablecoins move on-chain, while card transactions run through traditional payment networks. Rain maintains the user’s stablecoin balance and handles all on-chain logic. When a card is swiped, Lithic processes the transaction in fiat. Our Authorization Stream Access (ASA) pings Rain in real time to confirm the user has adequate stablecoin funds. If approved, the transaction clears over the card networks like any other purchase.
Behind the scenes, Rain performs any required conversion on their end, while Lithic manages the full lifecycle of fiat authorization, clearing, and settlement. The result is a seamless bridge between on-chain stablecoin value and globally accepted card payments, with no friction for the user and no custom configurations required for Rain’s partners.
The outcomes speak for themselves. Rain partners can now launch card programs in weeks, with millions of transactions already processed through the combined infrastructure.
Rain’s partnership with Lithic gives Rain’s ecosystem more choice, more speed, and more control—while proving that the future of stablecoin payments is already here.
What’s next in stablecoin-backed payments
Lithic is only scratching the surface of what stablecoins make possible. As programmable money infrastructure matures, we expect to see:
- On-chain rewards and loyalty that can be spent instantly via card
- Smart contract payroll that automates distribution and compliance
- Decentralized spend controls for DAOs and crypto-native orgs
- Cross-border expense management tied to stablecoin ledgers
Clearly, programmable money can continue to add real value for consumers and businesses alike. Lithic is building the infrastructure for a multi-rail future that can make these use cases a reality while always delivering a trusted, fast, and compliant experience. Whether you’re building a wallet, launching a remittance product, or exploring tokenized payments, Lithic can help you make it real—and make it work.
Reach out to us today, and let’s build something great.
