Cryptocurrency pockets firm Tangem has launched Tangem Pay, a digital Visa card that connects on to {hardware} wallets, permitting customers to spend stablecoins at thousands and thousands of retailers all over the world.
The paycard, co-founded with US funds infrastructure firm Paera, permits customers to deposit and spend Circle's USDC stablecoin on the Polygon community, the corporate stated in an announcement on Wednesday.
“As soon as a person deposits cash into their Tangem Pay account, they will spend it wherever Visa is accepted, whatever the native foreign money,” stated Tangem Pay CEO Marcos Nunez, noting that the answer helps Apple Pay and Google Pay for fast Visa funds.
42 international locations plan to roll out Tangem Pay playing cards at scale
The Tangem Pay card will start issuing in late November in key markets within the US, Latin America and Asia Pacific, with a deliberate launch in Europe in 2026.
The preliminary rollout will cowl 42 international locations together with Australia, Brazil, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, and america.
“The digital card is just the start. We’re already engaged on increasing into new international locations and offering incentives to make this card the go-to card for customers' each day spending,” Nunes stated.
Tangem describes the pay card as a central element of a broader imaginative and prescient for a complete self-custodial crypto ecosystem that features storage, development, and spending. In contrast to custodial wallets, self-custodial choices have the additional benefit of offering customers with direct possession of their cryptocurrencies with out the necessity to adjust to KYC obligations.
Crypto playing cards centered across the Tangem {hardware} pockets perform as chilly wallets, following “be your individual financial institution” pointers. Nonetheless, Tangem Pay accounts are nonetheless regulated by KYC rules. Tangem itself has no entry to person knowledge and KYC is barely required for pay card balances. If a person is blacklisted or concerned in legal exercise, companion regulators monitoring compliance might disconnect the cardboard from the cost community with out compromising the {hardware} pockets.
Rain manages compliance and funds for Tangem Pay, a stablecoin funds infrastructure supplier. Rain lately revealed plans to combine with Western Union's upcoming stablecoin-based cost system. Formally introduced in late October, Western Union's Solana-based digital asset community will function the corporate's proprietary stablecoin and is predicted to launch within the first half of 2026.
International stablecoin oversight guides Tangem Pay performance
Pay card performance is topic to ongoing world regulatory developments. Digital tokens pegged to fiat currencies, generally known as stablecoins, have attracted the eye of regulators because of issues about potential dangers to monetary stability, shopper safety, and anti-money laundering (AML) compliance.
In america, the GENIUS Act of 2025 established a federal definition of “cost stablecoin.” The regulation additionally requires issuers to keep up full reserves of liquid belongings, publish month-to-month disclosures, and prohibit deceptive advertising and marketing that means authorities help. Moreover, it helps resolve the issue that federally regulated stablecoins are neither securities nor financial institution deposits, offering authorized predictability for each issuers and customers.
Regulators worldwide are paying consideration. (e.g. the EU's MiCA framework, the UK's plans for a selected regulatory regime for stablecoins, and steerage from worldwide our bodies such because the FSB and FATF) give attention to transparency, operational resilience and cross-border coordination. That is significantly necessary for Tangem Pay, which operates in 42 markets with in depth rules governing reserve necessities, shopper safety, and AML compliance.
