1. WalletConnect Pay x Ingenico: Game Changer or Marketing Hype?

WalletConnect announced a partnership with Ingenico, claiming that stablecoin payments will be available on over 40 million POS terminals worldwide. Ingenico is a payment terminal manufacturer used by major global retailers including Walmart, Costco, Shell, and BP. The service will be available to PSPs and acquirers starting January 2026, with merchant activations expected to roll out across Europe in Q1-Q2.

WalletConnect Pay's core value proposition is clear: dramatically reduce the 2-3% card processing fees, settle transactions in seconds, and provide a familiar QR-based checkout experience. For large retailers processing $100 billion in annual payment volume, fee savings alone could amount to billions of dollars.

However, the counterarguments are substantial. The key issue is distribution structure. Ingenico terminals are Android-based with an app store, but merchants don't browse app stores on their terminals. They treat terminals as static utilities provided by their banks. Ingenico doesn't sell terminals directly to coffee shops—they sell to acquirers and ISOs (Independent Sales Organizations) like Worldpay, Fiserv, and Chase. These intermediaries configure the devices before handing them to merchants.

The problem is incentive misalignment. Acquirers and ISOs profit from interchange fees—the cut they receive from every Visa/Mastercard swipe. "Bypassing the banks" effectively means bypassing acquirer revenue. The acquirer controlling the terminal has zero incentive to install the WalletConnect app. In fact, they have negative incentive—every stablecoin transaction represents lost revenue compared to a card swipe.

There are counter-counterarguments to this as well. While acquirers lose interchange, the decision pressure comes from merchants. If merchants can save 2-3% on fees, they'll push for it, and the ecosystem adapts accordingly. Closed-loop tokens like gift cards don't carry the onerous fees of credit cards, and stablecoins as programmable payment instruments can leverage these existing token types. Post-GENIUS Act in the US, acquirers are already exploring how to incorporate stablecoin payments into their reconciliation processes. With merchants fed up paying over $100 billion annually to intermediaries, there's movement on the antitrust litigation front toward terminal openness.

2. The Reality of Crypto Cards

Artemis Analytics' stablecoin payments report analyzes the current state of crypto cards.

The vast majority of crypto card volume settles via fiat rails. When users swipe their cards, crypto-to-fiat conversion happens before payment network settlement, making transactions indistinguishable from regular card payments to merchants. Visa's stablecoin-linked volume reached an annualized $3.5 billion by Q4 2025—only about 19% of total crypto card settlement. The remaining 81% still settles after fiat conversion.

The infrastructure stack consists of three layers:

• Layer 1 - Payment Networks: Visa and Mastercard dominate nearly 100% of the crypto card market. While program counts are similar, Visa captures over 90% of on-chain volume, thanks to early partnerships with infrastructure providers.

• Layer 2 - Card Issuing Infrastructure: Two types exist. Program managers (Baanx, Bridge) provide white-label services, partnering with issuing banks for compliance and settlement. Full-stack issuers (Rain, Reap) hold Visa Principal Membership directly, collapsing the stack and capturing more economics per transaction.

• Layer 3 - Consumer-Facing Products: Four categories exist: centralized exchange cards (Coinbase, Crypto.com), self-custodial protocol cards (MetaMask, Phantom), crypto-native neobanks (KAST, Xapo), and traditional fintech platforms adding crypto features.

Incentives for card-issuing products vary by category:

• Exchanges & DeFi Protocols: Cards serve as user acquisition funnels and monetization layers. Rewards program costs are offset by subsequent deposit monetization and balance float. Token-incentivized platforms like Ether.fi have near-zero marginal reward costs, enabling higher cashback (~4.08%) than fiat-based competitors.

• Self-Custodial Wallets: Cards provide diversified revenue streams alternative to cycle-sensitive sources like swap fees. Card usage deepens engagement, reduces churn, and increases ARPU.

• Emerging Market Providers: They monetize through FX spreads, crypto-to-fiat conversion fees, merchant and cross-border transaction fees, and interchange revenue, targeting populations facing currency instability and capital controls.

So why do all these products ultimately operate on Visa/Mastercard rails?

Because card networks provide value far beyond transaction routing. Fraud protection with sophisticated detection systems, dispute resolution and chargeback rights, unsecured consumer credit, interchange-funded rewards programs, purchase protections like extended warranties and travel insurance. If native stablecoin payments must build all this from scratch, replicating the network effects that card infrastructure has accumulated over decades across 150 million+ merchant locations globally is extremely difficult. Critically, a payment method that cannot offer credit faces structural headwinds in consumer adoption.

This reality makes direct stablecoin acceptance by merchants challenging. Attempts like WalletConnect Pay exist, but there's no problem they solve better than cards for the average Western consumer or merchant. Stablecoin P2P transfers grow at 5% annually, while crypto cards grow at 106%. For now, crypto cards will continue outpacing native payment adoption.

Of course, crypto cards face criticism too. One more abstraction layer means one more fee layer—spread fees, withdrawal fees, transfer fees, sometimes custody yields. Individually insignificant, but they compound. As the saying goes, "a penny saved is a penny earned"—these hidden costs accumulate. Ultimately, crypto cards are a transitional solution. They provide convenience to crypto users by leveraging existing payment rails, but value fundamentally leaks through the fiat conversion process.