In 2025, the payment sector became one of the key narratives of the crypto industry.

There has been rapid development in the payment ecosystem: the launch of stablecoin cards, the scaling of B2B and P2P payments, and the emergence of entirely new L1 chains specifically focused on payment solutions.

I analyzed more than 35+ chains and systematized them into a tier list according to the level of development and maturity of the payment infrastructure.

S-tier payments chains:

@0xPolygon - rapid development of the payment ecosystem, development of micropayments and regional stablecoins.

Payment projects using the chain: Stripe, Revolut, Monerium, Rain Card, MasterCard, and others.

@solana - serious partnerships with major fintech giants, development of payment initiatives.

Payment projects using the chain: Revolut, Moonpay, Visa, PayPal, Cash App, and others.

@base - with the support of Coinbase, it has managed to gather many excellent and advanced payment companies around itself.

Payment projects using the chain: Coinbase, Stripe, Rain Card, Shopify, Wirex and others.

@tempo, @Plasma, @arc, @stable - all these projects are part of a new wave of stablechain infrastructures that emerged in 2025 and share a common goal: to optimize global payments and settlements using stablecoins.

@ethereum - plays an important role in the payments market, as billions of dollars pass through it every month from payment projects.

Payment projects using the chain: Stripe, Rain Card, Visa, MasterCard, PayPal and others.

A-tier payments chains:

@trondao and @Ripple are fundamentally important chains for the development of payment projects on the market. Tron provides more than half of all payments made with USDT, and Ripple is developing its own stablecoin, RLUSD.

Payment projects using the chain: RedotPay, Revolut, Moonpay, Oobit, Plisio and others.

@avax, @arbitrum, @BNBCHAIN, and @StellarOrg are chains that many new payment projects are choosing, and they significantly expanded their ecosystems in 2025.

Payment projects using the chain: Rain Card, RedotPay, Blackbird, Eldorado, Rise, Bleap and others.

@Celo - has made a significant contribution to the development of stablecoin payments in Africa and Asia through projects such as MiniPay and Noah.

Payment projects using the chain: MiniPay, Noah, DaimoPay, Valora and others.

@Dashpay - keeps the focus on real daily payments: instant transactions, low fees, stable operation in regions with high demand for P2P payments, and integration with merchant platforms.

Payment projects using the chain: Zebec Card, Edge, Now Wallet and other.

B-tier payments chains:

@SeiNetwork, @SuiNetwork, @Optimism, @Scroll_ZKP, @LineaBuild, @Aptos, @Cardano, and @THORChain—these chains contributed to the development of payment infrastructure in 2025.

@Optimism has become a popular chain for Rain Card customer deposits, @Scroll_ZKP runs one of the most popular crypto cards, Etherfi Cash Card, and @LineaBuild uses Metamask Card.

At the same time, @Cardano and @THORChain have their own crypto cards and are actively developing them.

Payment projects using the chain: Etherfi Cash, Metamask, Rain Card, Kolo Card and others.

C-tier and D payments chains:

C-tier and D-tier are actively evolving: they focus on fast and cheap payments, experiment with new models, and gradually increase adoption. @Algorand, @Sophon, @SonicLabs and others, are showing stable development and finding their niches.