Where the revenue in a stablecoin card program comes from: interchange, FX, fees, and rewards, with an illustrative unit-economics model and the caps.
Reading time: about 8 minutes.
Summary: Stablecoin card issuers make money the way card issuers always have: mostly from interchange, the fee the merchant's side pays the issuer on each purchase, plus FX fees, cardholder fees, and program charges. Stablecoins change the cost side more than the revenue side, through cheaper funding, faster settlement, and new conversion costs.
Key takeaways
This guide is for founders and product leads building a business case for a card program. For the mechanics of a purchase, read how a stablecoin-backed card works. For the integration path, see how to issue stablecoin-funded cards through an API.
Four places, in order of size for most programs: interchange, foreign exchange, cardholder fees, and balance income.
| Revenue line | Who pays | Typical driver | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Interchange | Merchant's side, on every purchase | Spend volume and card type | Capped in some markets for debit |
| Foreign exchange | Cardholder, on cross-currency purchases | Travel and cross-border spend | Fee, spread, or both |
| Cardholder fees | Cardholder | Subscriptions, physical cards, ATM use | Easy to disclose, easy to lose users over |
| Balance income | Varies by structure | Money held in reserve accounts | Subject to rules and partner agreements |
A note on the last row. The GENIUS Act bars payment stablecoin issuers from paying interest or yield to holders. A card program is usually not the stablecoin issuer, but any income on balances depends on how the program is structured and what its partners allow. Ask counsel before you put it in a pitch deck.
Exactly like on any other card. The merchant pays a processing fee to its acquirer, part of it goes to the network, and part goes to the issuing side as interchange.
Some terms:
Rain puts US interchange at "usually around 2-3%," split between the card network, the merchant's processor, and the issuer. The issuer's piece is then divided again under contract, between the sponsor bank, the processor, and the program manager.
The stablecoin balance behind the card doesn't change any of this. The merchant still runs a normal card transaction and gets paid in local currency. The stablecoin funding sits on the issuing side.
| Party | What it earns | What it pays for |
|---|---|---|
| Card network | Network fees on both sides | Messaging, rules, settlement |
| Merchant's acquirer | The merchant's processing fee, minus pass-throughs | Merchant onboarding and risk |
| Sponsor bank | A share of interchange, often plus fixed fees | Regulatory umbrella and balance sheet |
| Issuer-processor | Per-transaction and per-card fees | Authorization infrastructure |
| Program manager | Most of the remaining issuer interchange, plus its own cardholder fees | Product, users, support, rewards, compliance work |
The program manager's slice is what your business case lives on. It depends on volume tiers, minimums, and who covers fraud losses. Get it in writing for each provider you evaluate.
They can shrink the main revenue line by an order of magnitude, depending on the market and the bank.
United States. Regulation II, from the Durbin Amendment, caps debit interchange for covered issuers, meaning banks with 10 billion USD or more in assets, at "$0.21 plus 0.05 percent multiplied by the value of the transaction," plus a 1 cent fraud-prevention adjustment for eligible issuers. Issuers under 10 billion USD in assets are exempt. Many fintech debit programs work with sponsor banks below that threshold for this reason.
The Federal Reserve proposed lowering the cap in October 2023. That proposal has not been finalized, and the rule is in litigation, so check the current status before you model it.
European Union. The Interchange Fee Regulation (EU) 2015/751 caps consumer debit interchange at 0.2 percent and consumer credit at 0.3 percent for intra-EEA transactions.
Everywhere else. Rules differ. Verify for every market you launch before you commit to a reward rate.
Here is one active cardholder for one month. Every number is illustrative, chosen to show the shape, not to predict your program.
| Line | Illustrative assumption | Illustrative monthly amount |
|---|---|---|
| Card spend | 1,000 USD a month | n/a |
| Issuer interchange (exempt US debit) | 1.2% of spend | +12.00 USD |
| FX fee on cross-currency spend | 1% on 200 USD of foreign purchases | +2.00 USD |
| Subscription | None | 0.00 USD |
| Processor and network fees | Per transaction and per card | -1.50 USD |
| Sponsor bank share | Contracted | -2.00 USD |
| KYC and monitoring, amortized | Onboarding cost spread over 24 months | -0.40 USD |
| Rewards | 0.5% cashback | -5.00 USD |
| Funding and conversion costs | Bank-to-stablecoin and back | -0.80 USD |
| Support, disputes, statements | Amortized | -1.00 USD |
| Contribution per active cardholder | +3.30 USD |
Two things jump out. Rewards are the largest cost. And a covered-issuer debit cap would cut the interchange line from 12 USD to about 6 USD (21 cents plus 0.05 percent plus the 1 cent fraud adjustment, on an illustrative 25 purchases of 40 USD). The contribution turns negative, at about -2.70 USD.
Also watch the denominator. Inactive cards still cost money. Programs that report revenue per issued card instead of per active card are hiding the problem.
From interchange, in almost every program. The issuer's share is the budget for cashback and points.
Paying more than you earn is a legitimate growth tactic for a while. It is customer acquisition spend, so treat it like ads: set a payback period, measure it per active cardholder, and plan the date you'll step down the rate.
It moves costs around. Some go down, a few new ones appear.
Down: prefunding. Daily stablecoin settlement, including weekends, shrinks the cash a program parks to cover settlement lag. Visa says its stablecoin settlement runs seven days a week, against the traditional five-business-day window. The math is in prefunding and collateral in card issuing.
Down: wire costs and delays. A program funding its settlement wallet in stablecoins can move money outside bank hours.
New: conversion. Money starts in a bank account and often ends in one. Bank-to-stablecoin on the way in and stablecoin-to-bank on the way out each carry a fee or spread.
New: wallet operations. Gas, address screening, and reconciliation between on-chain movements and your ledger.
Seven steps, in order:
The card issuer runs the card; BlindPay moves money into and out of the stablecoin balance behind it. That's the funding and conversion line in the model above.
On the way in, BlindPay virtual accounts give each customer a US bank account in their own name. ACH, wire, and SWIFT deposits convert into USDC or USDT and land in the linked wallet. Each account costs 1.50 USD a month. On deposits under 100 USD the BlindPay fee accrues to the monthly invoice, and on 100 USD or more it is charged at the time of the transaction.
On the way out, payouts go to local bank accounts over Pix, SPEI, ACH, RTP, SEPA, and SWIFT (POBO/COBO), funded at send time with no pre-funding.
BlindPay combines a monthly plan with per-transaction fees that vary by rail and network and are disclosed in the live quote before execute. See plans, read the payout quote docs, or talk to the team.
This article is for general information only and is not legal, tax, or financial advice.
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