OKX executive says stablecoins are gaining traction in payments as new card launches

Stablecoins are moving beyond crypto experimentation and into trusted financial infrastructure, OKX said, as it announced the launch of a new debit card in Europe.

“Momentum is building fast,” Erald Ghoos, CEO of OKX Europe, told CoinDesk. “Regulators are putting real guardrails in place, major banks are not only taking them seriously for payments and settlements but are participating in industry-wide EU initiatives to become issuers, and everyday users are choosing faster, cheaper digital payments.”

European regulators have accelerated that momentum through the rollout of the EU’s Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) framework, which brings stablecoin issuers and crypto service providers under a single, bloc-wide regulatory regime.

Ghoos’s comments accompanied OKX’s announcement that it has rolled out a new crypto payments card in Europe, allowing users to spend stablecoins directly at Mastercard-accepting merchants.

The OKX Card connects self-custody wallets with real-world payments, offering fee-free spending, though there is a 0.4% market spread applied at the point of conversion, and crypto rewards.

Unlike most crypto cards that require manual conversions or preloading funds, the OKX Card lets users pay with stablecoins held in their wallets. The assets are converted only at the time of purchase. Users earn crypto rewards of up to 20% during a limited promotional period.

The card supports tap-to-pay functionality through mobile wallets like Apple Pay and Google Pay and can be used at over 150 million locations globally. Designed to integrate with OKX’s onchain infrastructure, it avoids centralized custody and emphasizes user control. “We’re making it simple for anyone in Europe to use crypto for real-world purchases—instantly, securely, and transparently,” Ghoos concluded.

OKX issues the card through a licensed European payments provider and operates in compliance with anti-money laundering (AML) and know-your-customer (KYC) regulations. Mastercard executive Christian Rau called the expansion part of an effort to bring stablecoins “into the financial mainstream.”

Ghoos said he believes stablecoins will soon be widely adopted. “Initial adopters may be crypto-natives, but over time, we believe instant, low-cost global payments via stablecoins will become the default for everyone.”