Stripe will extend its stablecoin card program to more than 100 countries before the end of 2026, the payments company said on October 5, a sixfold geographic expansion from the 18 markets where the Visa-backed product first launched in March.

The rollout, built on infrastructure acquired through Stripe's $1.1 billion purchase of Bridge in 2024 and the 2025 acquisition of Privy, will make blockchain-settled Visa cards available across more than 100 jurisdictions, according to Stripe's announcement. Cardholders will continue to transact at any of Visa's 175 million-plus merchant locations.

How does the program actually settle?

Bridge provides the on-chain settlement layer that lets transactions finalize on a blockchain rather than through conventional card rails. Privy, acquired in 2025, supplies wallet and authentication infrastructure for the card product. Together, the two units form the technical backbone of Stripe's stablecoin card issuance.

The Visa partnership, launched in March 2026 across 18 countries concentrated in Latin America, served as the program's initial market test. Going from 18 to 100+ in roughly nine months constitutes an aggressive sequencing rather than a measured rollout.

How large is the underlying market?

The expansion lands in a stablecoin payments sector that has grown sharply. Spending on stablecoin cards reached approximately $1.2 billion in September 2026, roughly triple the figure recorded a year earlier, according to industry data referenced in Stripe's announcement.

The cards sit inside a broader stablecoin ecosystem now exceeding $300 billion in total market capitalization. Stripe itself has processed more than 400 million cards since 2018 across its traditional card-issuance business, a base that gives the company distribution leverage as it layers stablecoin functionality onto existing rails.

Who is using the product today?

Existing program users include crypto exchange Kraken and corporate spend platform Ramp. Stripe did not name additional partners in the expansion announcement, leaving the door open for institutional integrations through the year-end window.

The 100-country target also extends beyond cards. The company has stated broader ambitions to enable financial services in more than 100 countries and to issue stablecoins directly in over 30 markets, with Bridge infrastructure powering both initiatives.

What operational hurdles come with the timeline?

Scaling from 18 to 100+ jurisdictions in a single year requires obtaining or partnering for local payment licenses, navigating varying e-money and digital asset regimes, and onboarding banking correspondents in each new market. The year-end target remains a stated objective rather than a confirmed deployment schedule.

Key indicators to track through the year-end window:

• Number of countries where cards actually go live before December 31, 2026
• Whether monthly stablecoin card spending sustains growth above the September $1.2 billion figure
• Additional named platform integrations beyond Kraken and Ramp
• Announced stablecoin issuance programs drawn from the 30+ market pipeline

If Stripe hits the 100-country mark, the move would push stablecoin settlement deeper into mainstream card networks, converting on-chain liquidity into point-of-sale utility across a substantially larger footprint than the Latin America-anchored pilot that launched nine months earlier.