Since the inception of the crypto asset industry, global user holdings have continued to grow. Yet a persistent contradiction remains unresolved: users have ample digital assets in their wallets, but struggle to use them directly for everyday purchases. Whether shopping at supermarkets, subscribing online, making cross-border payments, or withdrawing cash from ATMs, the pathway for digital assets to enter real-world economic scenarios remains far from seamless.
This situation is changing. In 2025, annual stablecoin transaction volume reached approximately $33 trillion, surpassing the combined $25.5 trillion processed by Visa and Mastercard. By Q1 2026, total stablecoin market capitalization hit $315 billion, with quarterly transaction volume at $28 trillion—up 51% quarter-over-quarter. Crypto payments are moving from fringe applications to mainstream consumer infrastructure.
At the heart of this transformation, PayFi is emerging as the core engine connecting on-chain assets with real-world spending. Gate Card, Gate’s digital asset Visa card, is tackling a fundamental question: can crypto assets truly become everyday payment tools?
The PayFi Era: Deep Integration of Payments and Finance
PayFi (Payment Finance) is a concept introduced by Solana Foundation Chair Lily Liu. Its core is to build a new financial market around the "time value of money"—fusing payments and financial services so that every transaction inherently generates financial value.
Traditional crypto payments simply use digital assets as a medium of exchange. PayFi is evolving into the next-generation payment-finance engine. The focus isn’t just on the form of crypto payments, but on leveraging the "time value of money" to reshape the relationship between payments, settlement, and financial services.
Between 2025 and 2026, PayFi is upgrading from a crypto payment tool to a new payment-finance engine. Stablecoins are achieving large-scale adoption in high-frequency and cross-border payments, with settlement efficiency and cost structures far superior to traditional systems. Cross-border payments are currently PayFi’s most mature application: settlement cycles have been reduced from days to minutes, and overall costs are an order of magnitude lower than legacy systems.
Stablecoins are becoming the core settlement layer within the PayFi ecosystem. As of May 2026, global stablecoin market capitalization reached $321.6 billion, up about 12% since the start of the year. USDT supply climbed to $189 billion, capturing over 58% market share. Stablecoins are gradually becoming global high-frequency payment tools, with their payment utility significantly strengthened.
Meanwhile, the boundary between Web2 and Web3 is dissolving. Traditional financial and tech giants like Visa and PayPal no longer view Web3 as a threat, but as a core driver for efficiency and business expansion. Visa is evolving from a traditional card organization into a network supporting multi-chain settlement, operating over 130 stablecoin-linked card programs in more than 50 countries. This fusion and symbiosis is replacing disruption, becoming the main theme of interaction between the two ecosystems.
The Consumption Gap for Digital Assets: A Structural, Long-Term Challenge
Stablecoin use cases have rapidly expanded from settlement tools within exchanges to globally circulating payment media. On-chain transaction volumes for USDT and USDC continue to climb, and more merchants are directly or indirectly accepting stablecoin payments.
Yet a structural contradiction persists: while crypto asset management continues to scale, channels for large-scale entry into everyday spending remain limited. To use USDT for payments, users typically face a complex process: transfer USDT from their wallet to a trading account, sell for fiat, withdraw to a bank account, and finally spend via a traditional bank card. This chain takes hours or even days and incurs multiple fees.
Crypto assets have seen significant value growth in recent market cycles. According to Gate market data, as of June 29, 2026, Bitcoin was priced at $59,270.70 with a market cap of $1.18 trillion; Ethereum at $1,558.93 with a market cap of $188.137 billion; GT at $6.50 with a market cap of $692 million. Despite these hundreds of billions and even trillion-dollar assets, their liquidity in real-world spending scenarios remains extremely low.
Price volatility further complicates spending. Bitcoin fell 10.73% in the past 30 days and 33.74% over the past year; Ethereum dropped 20.92% in 30 days and 31.14% over the year. Users worry that assets spent today could appreciate significantly in the future, dampening their willingness to spend. Stablecoins, however, are different—USDT price remains stable, making it naturally suited for everyday payments, but lacks direct spending infrastructure.
This gap presents a clear market opportunity for crypto payment cards.
Gate Card: The PayFi Payment Gateway
Gate Card is a digital asset Visa card launched by Gate, directly linked to Gate Pay accounts. Users don’t need to convert USDT or other digital assets to fiat in advance—the system handles asset conversion and settlement at the moment of transaction. This allows users to keep their on-chain assets in their original form, only accessing them at the point of purchase.
Gate Card’s operating logic stands in sharp contrast to traditional bank cards: conventional cards connect to bank account balances, while Gate Card connects to digital asset accounts. Once users hold assets like USDT, BTC, ETH, or GT in their Gate Pay account, the system automatically does two things at the moment of purchase: converts the selected digital asset to USD at the real-time exchange rate, and settles with the merchant via the Visa network. The entire process takes just seconds, delivering a seamless card payment experience.
This design eliminates the "sell crypto, withdraw fiat, then spend" intermediate steps. For long-term stablecoin holders, Gate Card turns USDT from a "held asset" into a "usable asset."
Currently, Gate Card supports four digital assets for direct payment: USDT, BTC, ETH, and GT. Users can choose any of these as the payment source when making purchases from their Gate Pay account. Available currencies may vary by card type, issuer, or region, and more assets will be supported as business evolves.
Payment Abstraction Layer: Removing Intermediaries
Gate Card’s core design principle is direct deduction of digital assets at the point of sale—merchants receive fiat, and users don’t need to manually convert currencies.
When users swipe, tap, or enter card information online, the system automatically converts and settles assets at the moment of transaction. No pre-conversion or complex off-chain steps are required.
This design delivers several key benefits:
Eliminates time costs: Traditional methods take hours or days; Gate Card compresses this to seconds.
Reduces fees: Traditional paths incur multiple fees; Gate Card charges a single fee per transaction.
Preserves asset form: Users can keep their on-chain assets as-is, without pre-converting to fiat.
Simplifies user experience: Users enjoy a standard card payment experience, without dealing with complex on-chain operations.
Global Reach: A Payment Network of 150 Million Merchants
Gate Card is accepted at over 150 million Visa merchants worldwide. Online shopping, in-store purchases, mobile payments, and even ATM withdrawals are all supported.
Gate Card offers two card formats:
Virtual cards are the entry point for most users. After completing Level 2 identity verification, virtual cards are typically activated within 3 to 5 minutes. They’re ideal for online shopping and can be linked to Apple Pay and Google Pay for contactless payments via mobile devices.
Physical cards cover broader scenarios: chip payments, contactless payments, and global ATM withdrawals. Both card types are free from issuance fees, monthly fees, and inactivity fees.
Industry data shows the crypto payment card market is expanding rapidly. Monthly crypto card transaction volume grew from about $100 million in January 2023 to over $1.5 billion by the end of 2025. By early 2026, monthly spending on crypto payment cards reached $500–600 million, with an annualized run rate exceeding $5 billion. Crypto card payment volume is growing at an annualized rate of 106%. Visa is rolling out over 130 stablecoin-linked card projects in more than 50 countries, with stablecoin settlement business reaching $700 million in annualized transaction volume as of April 2026.
These figures indicate crypto payments are moving from fringe applications to mainstream consumer infrastructure.
Cashback Mechanism: Earn as You Spend
Beyond payments, Gate Card’s cashback system is a standout feature. Gate Card tightly integrates spending with rewards: every eligible purchase earns points, which can be redeemed for USDT or GT at a fixed rate.
The cashback system uses a five-tier structure from T0 to T4:
| Card Tier | Points per Dollar | Actual Cashback Rate | Monthly Redemption Cap |
|---|---|---|---|
| T0 | 1 point | 1.00% | 500 points |
| T1 | 1 point | 1.00% | 5,000 points |
| T2 | 2 points | 2.00% | 10,000 points |
| T3 | 3 points | 3.00% | 15,000 points |
| T4 | 5 points | 5.00% | 25,000 points |
Cashback rates depend on card tier, calculated as: earn corresponding points for every $1 spent, with 100 points redeemable for 1 USDT. For example, at T4, every $1 spent earns 5 points—equivalent to 5% cashback.
Card tier, cashback rate, and monthly redemption cap are determined by the user’s Gate VIP level or monthly card spending, whichever offers higher benefits. New tier benefits take effect in the following calendar month and last for the entire month.
Points never expire and can be redeemed at any time.
Gate Card’s Role in the PayFi Ecosystem: The Last Mile of Consumer Infrastructure
Within the PayFi ecosystem, Gate Card serves as the "last mile" infrastructure on the consumer side.
PayFi creates a closed loop for value transfer from on-chain assets to real-world spending. In this loop, stablecoins are the settlement layer, DeFi is the financial layer, and Gate Card is the entry point for consumption. It addresses the critical issue in PayFi: enabling on-chain assets to enter everyday spending scenarios.
Specifically, Gate Card fulfills three functions in PayFi:
Payment gateway: As a bridge between on-chain assets and the Visa payment network, Gate Card lets users spend digital assets directly, bypassing complex intermediaries.
Value conversion layer: Gate Card converts digital assets to fiat in real time at the moment of transaction, so merchants receive fiat while users spend crypto. This design enables the value of on-chain assets to be realized in the real economy.
Incentive mechanism: Through its cashback system, Gate Card turns spending into ongoing accumulation of digital assets, creating a positive cycle of "spend-earn-spend again."
From a broader perspective, Gate Card’s value lies in making PayFi practical. No matter how robust PayFi’s theoretical framework is, if users can’t spend digital assets in real-world scenarios, the system lacks its most crucial link—consumer value realization. Gate Card fills this gap.
Conclusion
The crypto asset industry is undergoing a structural shift from speculation-driven to utility-driven growth. Market focus is moving from the next 100x token to the next million-user application. In this transition, payments are the critical link.
PayFi is becoming the key bridge between Web2 and Web3. Stablecoins are gradually emerging as global high-frequency payment tools, and crypto payment infrastructure is reaching maturity. Yet the pain point of users having abundant digital assets in their wallets but struggling to use them for daily spending remains unresolved.
Gate Card is designed to solve this problem. As a digital asset Visa card directly linked to Gate Pay accounts, Gate Card enables users to pay at over 150 million Visa merchants worldwide without pre-converting to fiat. It eliminates the "sell crypto, withdraw fiat, then spend" steps, making on-chain assets truly usable as payment tools.
Within PayFi’s grand narrative, Gate Card is the last mile of consumer infrastructure—it’s the final channel for on-chain asset value to be realized in the real economy, and the key step in turning PayFi from theory into everyday life.
