Rain Extends Visa Principal Membership into Asia-Pacific, Targeting $500B Stablecoin Market

Rain, the enterprise-grade stablecoin payments infrastructure company, announced on March 24, 2026 that it has extended its Visa principal membership into Asia-Pacific, marking the company's first regulated card-issuing footprint outside the Middle East and North Africa. Initial card program launches under the expanded membership are targeted for Q2 2026, with additional markets and program capabilities expected throughout the year. [1]

From MENA to APAC: Rain's Global Issuing Ambition

Rain entered the stablecoin card infrastructure space as a Visa principal member, a designation that separates it from conventional program managers. Principal membership means Rain issues cards directly under the Visa network rather than relying on a third-party issuing bank, giving its partners a significantly shorter path from product conception to live card program. The company had previously concentrated its issuing activity in the Middle East and North Africa, where it powers card programs for partners including Plasma One and KAST.

The APAC expansion extends that same architecture to a region that the International Monetary Fund says accounted for more than $500 billion in stablecoin transactions in 2024, ranking second globally behind North America. [1] Rain cited the region's position as home to some of the world's largest remittance corridors as a key driver of the move, alongside concentrated demand for corporate treasury solutions among export-oriented businesses.

"Businesses operating internationally should not have to stitch together multiple issuing partners and vendors just to launch a global card program. Our expansion into Asia-Pacific allows partners to build and scale global programs through a single platform, while stablecoins improve how money moves behind the scenes." - Farooq Malik, CEO and Co-Founder, Rain [1]

How the Infrastructure Model Works

Rain's architecture is designed to keep stablecoin complexity invisible to both cardholders and merchants. Partners, whether neobanks, fintech platforms, or enterprise treasury operators, integrate with Rain's backend to connect stablecoin-funded accounts to Visa-branded payment cards. Settlement flows are handled in stablecoins on the backend, while the cardholder experience mirrors a conventional Visa card accepted at any of the network's more than 150 million merchant locations across 150 countries. [1]

This separation of the end-user experience from the underlying settlement layer is central to Rain's pitch to prospective APAC partners. Rather than asking consumers to adapt to new payment behaviors, the platform modernizes financial infrastructure at the institutional level. Cardholders simply spend; Rain and its stablecoin rails handle the rest.

For remittance use cases specifically, stablecoin-backed card infrastructure allows recipients to spend incoming funds immediately at Visa-accepting merchants, eliminating the cash-out and bank transfer steps that traditionally erode value and introduce delays. APAC's remittance corridors, which span Southeast Asia, South Asia, and the Pacific Islands, represent a concentrated opportunity for this instant-spend model.

Rain's Existing Partner Ecosystem

Two of Rain's most prominent partners, Plasma One and KAST, illustrate the range of programs the platform supports. Plasma One, the stablecoin neobanking product built on Plasma's USD₮ infrastructure, issues virtual cards that are already live and physical cards currently shipping, covering both Southeast Asia and MENA. KAST offers a stablecoin spending card available globally with the exception of Turkey. Both programs operate on Rain's issuing infrastructure and Visa principal membership without maintaining independent Visa relationships of their own.

The table underscores the practical value of Rain's principal membership for partners: neither Plasma nor KAST needed to establish their own Visa relationship or navigate independent card program licensing. Rain absorbs those compliance and contractual obligations, reducing time-to-market and operational overhead for its clients.

Visa's Strategic Perspective

Visa itself has been an active architect of the stablecoin card settlement space. The network holds an estimated 90 percent share of on-chain card transactions and has been running a pilot program for direct stablecoin settlement with select principal members including Rain. [2] Rain joined that pilot in April 2025, fully tokenizing its credit card receivables and transitioning all Visa settlement transactions to USDC, enabling 365-day, round-the-clock settlement outside conventional banking hours.

"Visa is committed to enabling innovative partners and expanding global access to digital payments. Our collaboration with Rain reflects our focus on delivering secure, scalable payment experiences as digital assets continue to evolve." - Nischint Sanghavi, Visa's Crypto Lead for Asia-Pacific [1]

Sanghavi's remarks signal that the APAC expansion is not a unilateral Rain initiative but a coordinated buildout with Visa's regional organization, which adds institutional weight to partner programs launched under the new footprint.

Market Context: Stablecoin Cards Reach Inflection

Rain's APAC announcement arrives at a moment of acute acceleration in stablecoin card adoption. According to Artemis analysis cited in a January 2026 Forbes profile of the company, annual growth in crypto card transactions reached 106 percent, with yearly volume hitting $18 billion, a figure approaching parity with peer-to-peer stablecoin transfers at $19 billion. [2] Rain itself reported a 30x year-over-year increase in its card base and a 38x increase in payment volume, with more than 200 organizations now on its platform. [2]

Additionally, Rain announced on April 1, 2026 a strategic processing partnership with Episode Six, a global card processor that brings Visa-certified processing and deep local infrastructure to the APAC markets Rain is entering. Episode Six will serve Rain's credit, debit, and prepaid card programs across the region, further reinforcing the regulated, institutional-grade character of Rain's APAC buildout. [3]

The company's Series C round, which closed at $250 million and valued Rain at nearly $2 billion, established the capital base for this geographic expansion. [2] The APAC move is the clearest evidence yet that Rain intends to deploy that capital toward becoming the default stablecoin card infrastructure layer for the world's highest-growth digital payments markets.

References

[1] PR Newswire, March 24, 2026: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/rain-expands-visa-membership-into-asia-pacific-advancing-the-reach-of-its-global-stablecoin-payment-infrastructure-302722723.html

[2] Forbes, January 21, 2026: https://www.forbes.com/sites/boazsobrado/2026/01/21/rains-2b-valuation-ignites-crypto-card-payment-stack-war/

[3] PR Newswire, April 1, 2026: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/rain-and-episode-six-form-long-term-partnership-beginning-with-asia-pacific-expansion-302730764.html