Rain CEO says stablecoin payments reach more than 100,000 merchants without them knowing it

Stablecoin payments facilitated by Rain are already reaching more than 100,000 merchants without them knowing it, according to CEO Farooq Malik, as stablecoins increasingly move through existing payment networks.Malik told The Block' s Kelvin Sparks at Wyoming Blockchain Symposium 2026 that such transactions made with stablecoins currently settle through Visa’s payment network in about three days. He outlined how merchants could instead opt to use stablecoins to settle the same day.The comments come as total stablecoin supply has grown to more than $290 billion, according to The Block’s data dashboard. Tether’s USDT accounts for more than $183 billion of the total, while Circle’s USDC has nearly $72 billion.Rain has expanded its payments infrastructure alongside that growth. The company raised $250 million in a Series C round in January at a $1.95 billion valuation, bringing its total funding to $338 million. Rain said at the time that it facilitated stablecoin card programs and wallets for more than 200 partners and processed more than $3 billion in annualized transactions.In May, Rain became a principal member of Mastercard, allowing it to offer stablecoin-powered credit and prepaid cards across more than 210 countries and regions. Rain already had a relationship with Visa and said it would explore settling select program flows onchain using regulated stablecoins.Rain develops infrastructure for agentic paymentsMalik also discussed Rain’s work on agentic payments, including “scoped cards” designed to give AI agents controlled authority to transact on behalf of users.He said the approach can impose controls such as minimum and maximum balances and limits on how much an agent can spend, allowing users to set the scope of delegated payment authority.Rain is also part of the Agentic Payments Alliance, which Malik described as a forum for developing standards around agentic payments. He said the company is focused on authorization, transaction settlement, programmable money movement, and reconciliation with existing accounting systems.Disclaimer: The Block is an independent media outlet that delivers news, research, and data. As of November 2023, Foresight Ventures is a majority investor of The Block. Foresight Ventures invests in other companies in the crypto space. Crypto exchange Bitget is an anchor LP for Foresight Ventures. The Block continues to operate independently to deliver objective, impactful, and timely information about the crypto industry. Here are our current financial disclosures.© 2026 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.