New data reveals a widening chasm in the crypto-linked card market, with Visa processing a dominant 72% of all transaction volume, significantly outpacing Mastercard. According to Paymentscan, Visa handled $717.9 million in monthly crypto card volume compared to Mastercard's $275.1 million, giving Visa a 2.6x advantage. This gap has been consistently growing since mid-2024.
Visa's lead is evident across all key metrics: it processes 7.2 million transactions against Mastercard's 4.5 million and serves 145,000 users versus 119,000. Crucially, the volume disparity is disproportionate to the user gap. Visa has 22% more users but processes 161% more volume, indicating that Visa crypto cardholders are spending significantly more per transaction on average.
The acceleration in Visa's dominance aligns with the broader crypto adoption wave following the spot Bitcoin ETF approvals in January 2024 and the subsequent bull market. Analysts attribute Visa's success to its early and aggressive partnerships with major crypto-native platforms like Coinbase and Crypto.com, whose cards run on Visa rails, creating a powerful network effect.
In a parallel development, Solana (SOL) has unexpectedly pivoted to become a major settlement layer for payments. Messari research shows Solana's total payment volume surged by 755.3% in 2025, far outpacing the median growth rate of other platforms. The network carried approximately $2.61 billion in stablecoin payments last year and now handles 46% of stablecoin transfers among its peers.
This growth is driven by significant partnerships with mainstream financial institutions. Visa's USDC pilot program on Solana reached $3.5 billion in annualized volume. Other key partners include Stripe, Worldpay (which reported halving processing times using Solana), Western Union, and Fiserv. This surge in real-world payment utility has made Solana the second-largest fee producer among major networks, generating over $5 million in weekly transaction fees.
