The best blockchain for payment processing depends on the payment. For a card program, the issuer usually picks the settlement chain, and of the 13 chains compared here, 
Base, 
Solana, 
Ethereum, 
Polygon, and Tempo are the ones both Visa and Mastercard accept for stablecoin settlement. 
TRON remains the largest network for USDT. All four new payment chains, or stablechains, are live on mainnet: 
Arc and 
Plasma already settle about $50 million of card spend a month each, while Tempo and Stable carry almost none.
Card volume by chain shows where issuers settle, not where users pay. Of the $1.37 billion stablecoin cards processed in October 2026, onchain settlement was led by Base at $259 million, 
Optimism at $145 million, and Solana at $143 million (all chains). TRON took more card top-ups than any other chain, yet no card spend we track settled there.
Blockchains for Payments Compared
USDT0 in the table is USDT bridged from Ethereum through LayerZero.
| Chain | Main Stablecoins | Fees Paid In | Visa / Mastercard Settlement | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ChainBase | Main StablecoinsUSDC, EURC | Fees Paid InETH | Visa / Mastercard SettlementBoth | Best ForCard programs, x402 payments |
| ChainOptimism | Main StablecoinsUSDC, USDT0 | Fees Paid InETH | Visa / Mastercard SettlementNeither | Best ForPrograms tied to its DeFi apps |
| ChainSolana | Main StablecoinsUSDC, USDT, EURC | Fees Paid InSOL | Visa / Mastercard SettlementBoth | Best ForConsumer wallets, card settlement |
Chain Arbitrum | Main StablecoinsUSDC, USDT0 | Fees Paid InETH | Visa / Mastercard SettlementMastercard | Best ForEVM card programs |
Chain Stellar | Main StablecoinsUSDC, EURC | Fees Paid InXLM | Visa / Mastercard SettlementVisa | Best ForIssuer settlement, regulated tokens |
| ChainPolygon | Main StablecoinsUSDC, USDT0 | Fees Paid InPOL | Visa / Mastercard SettlementBoth | Best ForPayouts, ramps, micropayments |
| ChainArc | Main StablecoinsUSDC, EURC | Fees Paid InUSDC | Visa / Mastercard SettlementVisa | Best ForInstitutional USDC settlement |
| ChainPlasma | Main StablecoinsUSDT0, USDC, EURC | Fees Paid InXPL | Visa / Mastercard SettlementNeither | Best ForUSDT-first neobanks |
| ChainEthereum | Main StablecoinsUSDC, USDT, EURC | Fees Paid InETH | Visa / Mastercard SettlementBoth | Best ForTreasury, large ramp transfers |
Chain BNB Chain | Main StablecoinsBridged USDT and USDC | Fees Paid InBNB | Visa / Mastercard SettlementNeither | Best ForFunding cards from exchanges |
| ChainTempo | Main StablecoinsUSDT0, bridged USDC | Fees Paid InUSD stablecoins | Visa / Mastercard SettlementBoth | Best ForPayouts, agent payments |
| ChainTRON | Main StablecoinsUSDT | Fees Paid InTRX, energy, bandwidth | Visa / Mastercard SettlementNeither | Best ForAccepting USDT deposits |
| ChainStable | Main StablecoinsUSDT0 | Fees Paid InUSDT0 | Visa / Mastercard SettlementNeither | Best ForUSDT payments |
What Paymentscan's Data Shows
Paymentscan records the chain on which each card program's money moves: card payments, daily clearing, a program's settlements with its issuer, or an issuer's settlements with the card network. Partner-reported spend, such as 
RedotPay's, has no chain, so the chains add up to about $940 million of October's $1.37 billion. Ethereum and Stellar flows are mostly batched issuer settlements, not one transaction per purchase.
Card Spend by Settlement Chain
| Chain | Oct 2026 | Oct 2025 | Main Programs, Oct 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| ChainBase | Oct 2026$259M | Oct 2025$18.5M | Main Programs, Oct 2026Wirex-issued programs $98M, Rain-issued $84M,  Karta $54M |
| ChainOptimism | Oct 2026$145M | Oct 2025$4.6M | Main Programs, Oct 2026 ether.fi $142M |
| ChainSolana | Oct 2026$143M | Oct 2025$19.7M | Main Programs, Oct 2026 KAST settlements $100M, Rain-issued $32M |
| ChainArbitrum | Oct 2026$86M | Oct 2025$11.0M | Main Programs, Oct 2026Immersve-issued $68M,  Tria $11M |
| ChainStellar | Oct 2026$74M | Oct 2025$4.3M | Main Programs, Oct 2026 Wirex's network settlements |
| ChainPolygon | Oct 2026$64M | Oct 2025$35.8M | Main Programs, Oct 2026Rain-issued $30M,  Karta.io $17M,  Kolo $12M |
A chain's card volume follows the one or two issuers or programs that chose it. Optimism grew more than 30-fold because ether.fi moved its card there from 
Scroll in April 2026, which also took Scroll from $33 million a year earlier to nothing. 
Rain, the largest issuer, moves its settlement programs between chains every few weeks.
By token, USDC carried $474 million of October's card spend, USDT $190 million, and EURC $73 million.
Why TRON Shows No Card Spend
TRON is the largest network for USDT. Tether's transparency data shows $92.1 billion of USDT on TRON on 13 November 2026, 52% of the $175.7 billion in circulation, ahead of Ethereum's $79.7 billion. TRON DAO reported $4.2 trillion of USDT transfers on TRON in 2026 by early July, citing Token Terminal.
Yet no card spend we track settles on TRON, even though card top-ups there reached $354 million in October 2026, more than on any other chain, from RedotPay ($261 million) and KAST ($93 million). RedotPay gets more of its tracked top-ups on TRON than on any other chain, though it says up to 10% of its onchain top-up volume is not card spending, such as remittances.
Settlement runs elsewhere. Visa settles in USDC and EURC, and Mastercard in six stablecoins including USDC and PYUSD. Neither accepts USDT or lists TRON, and Circle does not issue USDC there. So programs take USDT deposits on TRON and settle with their issuer on another chain: KAST settled $100 million with Rain on Solana in October.
Ramp and x402 Payments by Chain
Fiat on- and off-ramp flows sit on different chains from card spend: about 94% of the $2.1 billion that moved through the four ramp providers we track in October 2026 ran on Ethereum, Base, and Polygon (ramp data). These are only the providers we track, not the whole market.
x402 payments, which let software and AI agents pay per request in stablecoins, are far smaller. Through the facilitators Paymentscan tracks, x402 settled $372,000 across 3.3 million payments in October 2026, most of the value on Base and most of the payments on Polygon (x402 data). Our comparison of blockchain payment APIs explains how x402 works.
What Makes a Good Blockchain for Payment Processing
Seven criteria separate the chains:
- Fees. What one transfer costs, and who pays it. Polygon cites an average of $0.002 per transaction and BNB Chain about $0.003; Stellar's minimum is 0.00001 XLM per operation. Ethereum costs more than any other chain here.
- Finality. How soon a payment can't be reversed. Arc advertises deterministic finality in under a second, Stable single-slot finality, and Plasma finality within seconds. Ethereum finalises in about 13 minutes, and rollups such as Base, Arbitrum, and Optimism confirm in seconds but settle on Ethereum.
- Stablecoin supply and native issuance. A natively issued token can be minted and redeemed with its issuer, with no bridge in between. Circle issues USDC on every chain here except TRON, BNB Chain, Tempo, and Stable, and EURC on nine chains, including Base, Solana, Stellar, Arc, and Plasma. Tether issues USDT natively on TRON, Ethereum, and Solana; on most other chains here it arrives as USDT0.
- Compliance features. Circle and Tether can freeze addresses holding their tokens. Some chains add controls at protocol level: Stellar's issuer authorisation and clawback flags, Tempo's TIP-403 allowlist and blocklist policies, and Arc's permissioned validators.
- Card network, issuer, and ramp support. Visa settles in stablecoins on nine chains and Mastercard on eight (listed in the FAQ below). Visa accepts USD and EUR stablecoins and Mastercard only USD ones, as our explainer on Visa and Mastercard stablecoin settlement sets out. These lists cover issuers' settlement with the network; a program can settle with its issuer on any chain the issuer supports.
- Wallet ecosystem. EVM chains share wallets and tooling. Solana, Stellar, and TRON each need their own.
- Gas abstraction. Whether users can pay fees in the stablecoin they hold. Tempo charges fees in USD stablecoins, Arc in USDC, and Stable in USDT0. On Stellar, Solana, and EVM chains, a business can pay fees for its users.
Payment Blockchains, Profiled
Base
Base, Coinbase's Ethereum layer 2, is the largest settlement chain for the card spend we track, mostly from Wirex-issued programs, Rain-issued programs, and Karta. USDC and EURC are native, and both card networks settle on it. It also carries the most x402 value and the second-most tracked ramp volume. It suits card programs and agent payments.
Solana
Solana's card spend is led by KAST's settlements with Rain and by Rain-issued programs, with wallet cards such as 
Exodus Pay, 
Phantom Cash, and 
MetaMask at around $1-2 million each. USDC, USDT, and EURC are native, and both card networks settle on it: Visa's initial US bank participants, Cross River and Lead Bank, began settling in USDC on Solana in December 2025. Any account can pay a transaction's fee, so apps can cover fees for users. It suits consumer wallets and card settlement more than ramps, where its tracked volume is small.
Ethereum
Ethereum's card spend was $39 million in October 2026, almost all batched: Rain-issued programs settled $26 million and KAST $13 million in a few large transfers. USDC, USDT, and EURC are native, and both card networks settle on it. It carries the most tracked ramp volume and the second-largest USDT supply after TRON. With higher fees and slower finality, it suits treasury moves, large ramp transfers, and issuer settlement batches rather than individual payments.
Arbitrum
Arbitrum, an Ethereum layer 2, settles mostly 
Immersve-issued programs and Tria. USDC and USDT0 are available, and Mastercard lists it for settlement; Visa does not. It suits EVM programs whose issuer already settles there.
Optimism
Optimism (OP Mainnet) shows how one program can make a chain: ether.fi accounts for almost all of its card spend. USDC and USDT0 are available, but neither card network lists it for settlement, and tracked ramp volume is minimal. It makes sense when your issuer and your users' DeFi positions are already there.
Polygon
Polygon's card spend comes from Rain-issued programs, Karta.io, and Kolo. USDC and USDT0 are available, and both card networks settle on it. It handles the most small payments: it carried the most x402 payments in October 2026, averaging about three cents, and is the third-largest chain for tracked ramp volume. It suits payouts, ramps, and micropayments.
Stellar
In our data, Stellar is an issuer settlement chain: all of its October card volume was Wirex's settlements with the card network. USDC and EURC are native, and Visa settles on it. Issuers can require approval before an account holds their asset, freeze a holding, or claw it back, and fee-bump transactions let a business pay its users' fees. Barça Mobile, FC Barcelona's official mobile network, is building a wallet and card with Wirex on Stellar.
TRON
TRON leads tracked card top-ups, but no tracked card spend settles there. It holds over half of all USDT, and neither card network settles on it. Fees are paid in TRX or with energy and bandwidth from staked TRX. Support it to accept USDT deposits, not to settle a card program.
BNB Chain
BNB Chain funds cards more than it settles them. Tracked top-ups reached $177 million in October 2026, mostly to RedotPay ($138 million) and KAST ($39 million), while card spend settled there was $11 million, almost all Rain-issued, up from $33,000 a year earlier. Its USDT and USDC are bridged versions, not issued by Tether or Circle, and neither card network settles on it. It suits programs whose users fund cards from exchanges.
Plasma
Plasma, a Bitfinex-backed layer 1 for USDT payments, launched its mainnet beta on 25 September 2025. Its card spend reached $50 million in October 2026 from nothing a year earlier: Plasma One, its own neobank card, settled $30 million and Rain-issued programs $20 million, and our analysis of Plasma One's launch covers its first months. USDT0, USDC, and EURC are available, and neither card network settles on it. Its docs describe XPL as the gas token, most transactions as costing under a cent, and paying gas in stablecoins as still in development.
Arc
Circle's layer 1, Arc, launched its public mainnet on 16 September 2026, and 
Wirex One settled $55 million there in October 2026; we have tracked its settlements on Arc since June. USDC and EURC are native, and Visa added Arc to its settlement pilot in April 2026. Fees are paid in USDC, finality is deterministic and under a second, and its permissioned founding validators include BlackRock, Visa, Mastercard, and Standard Chartered. It suits institutional USDC settlement.
Tempo
Tempo, incubated by Stripe and Paradigm, launched its mainnet on 18 March 2026. Card settlement is just starting, with $2,200 of 
Bridge-issued spend in October. USDT0 and bridged USDC are available, both card networks settle on it, and Visa, Stripe, and Zodia Custody joined as its first external validators in April 2026. It has no gas token: fees are paid in USD stablecoins, apps can sponsor them, and transfers can carry memos for reconciliation.
Stable
Stable, also Bitfinex-backed, launched its mainnet on 8 December 2025, and we track no card spend on it yet. USDT0 is both its gas token and an ERC-20, so users need no other asset, and neither card network settles on it. Its docs describe single-slot finality, sub-second blocks, gas waivers that let apps pay users' fees, and x402 facilitators that settle in USDT0.
How to Choose a Blockchain for Payments
Start from the payment, not the chain:
- Card program. Choose the issuer first: it decides the settlement chains, and changes them. Rain-issued programs settled on nine chains in October 2026, each with more than $5 million. Then accept deposits where your users already hold stablecoins, which for many USDT users means TRON or BNB Chain. Our comparison of stablecoin card issuers covers the rest of that choice.
- B2B payouts and treasury. Follow the ramps. Tracked ramp volume sits mostly on Ethereum, Base, and Polygon, all with native USDC. Tempo is built for this too, with stablecoin fees and memos for reconciliation.
- Remittances. Meet recipients where they hold money, which for USDT often means TRON. Stellar suits regulated remittance products that need issuer controls and low fixed fees; Barça Mobile's wallet uses it for cross-border transfers.
- Agentic and x402 micropayments. In October 2026, Base carried most x402 value and Polygon most payments through the facilitators we track. Tempo's Machine Payments Protocol lets an agent open a session and aggregate thousands of small payments into one settlement transaction, and Stable runs x402 facilitators in USDT0.
Which Blockchain to Start With
Pick your issuer or payout provider first and build on the chains it already settles on, then add deposits on the chains your users hold stablecoins on, which often means TRON. Treat the stablechains as chains to test rather than defaults: of the four, only Arc and Plasma carry meaningful card volume so far.
