The cards are powered by Bridge, the Stripe-owned stablecoin infrastructure platform, and will let Sendwave Wallet customers spend their digital-dollar balances at millions of merchants worldwide, according to a Tuesday (Dec. 2) news release. Zepz has also signed an agreement with Stripe to expand into new markets including the U.S., Canada and Australia.
“For years, cross-border communities have been underserved by a financial system that wasn’t built for them,” said Mark Lenhard, CEO of Zepz.
“We’re changing that. By leveraging Bridge’s infrastructure, Sendwave customers can use their digital dollar balance to not just send, receive and hold funds but also to spend them as an integral part of their daily lives.
Launched in October, the Sendwave Wallet is a peer-to-peer money solution that allows customers to send, store and spend funds across more than 100 countries. With Bridge, Zepz customers can use their stablecoin balances to make everyday purchases by tapping a card, anywhere Visa is accepted.
Once the customer has made a purchase, Bridge instantly converts their stablecoins to local currency, allowing merchants to get paid as they would with any other transaction.
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“We launched our card issuing platform earlier this year to address a major gap we saw in the market,” said Zach Abrams, CEO and co-founder of Bridge. “Global fintechs like Zepz shouldn’t have to spend years launching cards from scratch in every single country. With Bridge, Zepz can launch card services quickly and expand to new countries with just a few lines of code.”
The partnership comes amid a surge in stablecoin payment volume following recent digital asset legislation in the U.S.
Upwards of $10 billion flowed through stablecoins in August for goods, services and transfers, according to an October report from blockchain data provider Artemis Analytics.
That number is up from $6 billion in February and more than double the volume from August of last year, said the report, issued in the wake of the signing of the GENIUS Act in the U.S.
Stablecoin payments could come to $122 billion over a full year, the report added.
“It’s well understood that stablecoins have graduated from merely being a tool used by crypto traders and exchanges to conveniently move money around without relying on banks, to a more widely used tool for consumer and enterprise payments,” Artemis said.
“Major payments companies such as Visa, Mastercard, and Stripe have begun to incorporate stablecoins into their payment flows.”
