Rain completes $250 million financing, intensifying competition in the encrypted payment field

On January 21st, Rain, a cryptocurrency infrastructure company, completed a $250 million Series C financing with a valuation of nearly $2 billion, accelerating competition in the cryptocurrency payment field around stablecoin payments. Artemis data shows that the scale of encrypted card payments has grown by 106% annually, with a transaction volume of $18 billion, approaching the $19 billion scale of stablecoin peer-to-peer transfers. Researcher Patrick Kim predicts that by the end of this year, encrypted cards will become the main retail payment scenario for stablecoins. The competitive path includes full stack issuance mode, orchestration layer mode, and payment specific blockchain. Visa accounts for 90% of on chain card payments, and there is significant growth in payment demand in Africa, Latin America, and South Asia.