Stablecoin payments routed through Rain are already reaching more than 100,000 merchants through existing card networks, often without merchants knowing that a blockchain-based dollar was involved, according to Farooq Malik, the company’s chief executive officer. The arrangement gives stablecoin issuers and wallet providers access to familiar card acceptance infrastructure while leaving the checkout experience largely unchanged for merchants and consumers.
Malik said the payments currently move through Visa’s network and typically settle in about three days. Rain is exploring a model under which merchants could elect to receive settlement in stablecoins on the same day, potentially shortening the gap between a card transaction and the merchant’s access to funds.
The model places stablecoins inside a payments system that merchants already use rather than requiring retailers to add crypto checkout tools, manage digital-asset wallets, or change point-of-sale software. A customer could use a card funded by stablecoins, while the merchant receives payment through the card rails already connected to its acquirer and bank.
That distinction also shapes Rain’s commercial strategy. The company is building infrastructure for card programs, wallets, settlement and compliance rather than trying to persuade merchants to accept tokens directly at the counter.
Stablecoin supply reaches more than $290 billion
Rain’s expansion comes as the outstanding supply of USD-pegged stablecoins has moved above $290 billion, according to the industry dashboard referenced in the supplied data. Tether’s USDT accounts for more than $183 billion of that supply, while Circle’s USDC stands near $72 billion.
The concentration of supply in USDT and USDC means that payment providers seeking to offer stablecoin settlement are likely to depend heavily on the liquidity, redemption mechanisms and compliance frameworks surrounding those two tokens. For a card-linked payments provider, the practical challenge is less about creating a new digital dollar and more about connecting established stablecoins to authorization, fraud controls, merchant settlement and accounting processes.
Three-day settlement remains common in card payments because transactions pass through multiple participants, including the issuing bank, card network, acquirer and merchant. Stablecoins could offer a different settlement asset, but faster merchant access would still depend on how a provider manages risk, chargebacks, conversion, compliance checks and the operating rules of the card program.
Malik’s comments suggest Rain sees stablecoins as a way to modify the settlement layer without disrupting the customer-facing card transaction. That approach may prove more immediately useful for wallet companies, fintechs and remittance providers than direct crypto acceptance, which can require merchants to make decisions about token custody and conversion.
Rain adds Mastercard membership after funding round
Rain raised $250 million in a Series C financing round in January at a $1.95 billion valuation, bringing its total funding to $338 million, according to the company’s January announcement. At the time, Rain said it supported stablecoin card programs and wallets for more than 200 partners and processed more than $3 billion in annualized transaction volume.
The financing followed a period in which stablecoin companies have increasingly sought distribution through payments products rather than through trading venues alone. Cards offer a route to existing consumer spending behavior, while embedded wallet and card programs give fintech companies a way to offer digital-dollar balances without building their own payments stack.
In May, Rain became a principal member of Mastercard. The membership allows Rain to offer stablecoin-powered credit and prepaid card programs across more than 210 countries and regions, according to the company. Principal membership generally gives a payments company greater ability to issue and manage programs through the network, rather than relying entirely on another licensed member.
Rain also has an existing relationship with Visa, Malik said. The company plans to explore putting certain program settlement flows onchain using regulated stablecoins, a structure that could connect card spending with blockchain-based movement of funds behind the scenes.
Visa and Mastercard’s involvement does not mean that every payment in these programs settles on a public blockchain. The card networks continue to handle authorization and transaction routing, while Rain’s proposed use of stablecoins concerns how funds are settled between parties after the purchase. That separation may make blockchain settlement easier to introduce in limited stages, particularly for cross-border programs or businesses holding stablecoin balances.
AI agents become a second payments focus
At the Wyoming Blockchain Symposium 2026, Malik also described Rain’s work on “agentic payments,” a category aimed at allowing AI systems to make narrowly authorized purchases for users or businesses.
Rain’s proposed tool is a “scoped card,” which would give an AI agent permission to pay within limits set by the user. Malik said those controls could include minimum and maximum balances as well as caps on how much an agent may spend. The aim is to make delegation more constrained than simply handing an automated system unrestricted access to a payment account.
The approach addresses a basic problem for AI-assisted commerce: an agent may be able to identify a product, compare prices or renew a service, but it needs a controlled way to complete a transaction. Spending limits, balance rules and specific permissions could give users a means to authorize routine purchases while retaining boundaries around the agent’s activity.
Rain is also part of the Agentic Payments Alliance, which Malik described as a standards-focused group working on authorization, settlement, programmable movement of money and reconciliation with existing accounting systems. Those areas are likely to determine whether AI payment tools can operate within corporate finance and consumer-protection requirements, rather than remaining limited to experimental wallet features.
Rain’s card-network relationships and planned stablecoin settlement options show how digital dollars are being positioned less as a separate checkout method and more as a settlement tool embedded beneath conventional payments. The outcome will depend on whether providers can offer faster access to funds without weakening the controls that merchants, card networks and regulators expect from established payment systems.
Explore why stablecoins matter for payments in Asia in this detailed guide on real-world adoption.
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