Pudgy Penguins partners with Visa: the crypto payment card Pengu Card is officially launched

As the crypto world gradually shifts from pure speculation to practical use by 2026, the payments sector is evolving into a battleground. What kind of waves will be stirred when NFT giants dive into traditional finance?

On February 12, blue-chip NFT project Pudgy Penguins announced a partnership with payments giant Visa and fintech company KAST to officially launch the Pengu Card. This is not just a simple co-branded card but a deep integration of crypto culture with mainstream financial infrastructure.

The “Breaking Out” Battle of the Pudgy Penguins: Pengu Card’s Ambitions

Pudgy Penguins has long been content with just serving as avatars or community tokens. Through its collaboration with Visa, they are extending their brand influence into real-world payment scenarios. The launch of Pengu Card marks Pudgy Penguins’ statement: “Not just crypto, but a partner deeply involved in retail, traditional finance, and everyday payments.”

According to official information, this card features several highly attractive characteristics:

Global Acceptance: Covers over 150 million Visa merchants worldwide, meaning holders can pay with crypto assets at nearly all places that accept Visa.

High Rewards: Offers up to 12% cashback on spending, which is exceptionally high compared to traditional credit cards and existing crypto cards.

Interest Generation: Users’ assets can earn up to 7% returns, turning idle crypto funds into income-generating tools.

Seamless Experience: Users can directly pay with stablecoins or cryptocurrencies without the hassle of converting assets back to exchanges, truly enabling on-chain assets to flow into the real world.

This “three-tier” setup (standard, black, and gold cards) and referral leaderboard incentives clearly leverage the community engagement strategies NFT projects excel at, aiming to transfer Web3 user loyalty into traditional payment scenarios.

More Than Just a Co-Brand: Data Reveals a Payment Card Boom

Pudgy Penguins’ decision to enter the payment card space at this time is no coincidence. The entire crypto payment card sector is experiencing explosive growth. Although January 2026 data shows crypto payment card transaction volume at $113 million, a slight 5.8% decline from December 2025, ending a 12-month streak of growth, the market’s intrinsic momentum remains strong.

Even more noteworthy is its stability: since February, the daily average transaction volume for crypto payment cards has remained between $3.5 million and $4 million. This “gentle correction” is interpreted by analysts as a healthy seasonal adjustment rather than a trend reversal. After all, January typically includes post-holiday slowdowns.

Deeper transformation lies in the paradigm shift: crypto payment cards are turning cryptocurrencies from “investment assets” into “everyday currencies.” Through instant fiat conversion technology, when users swipe, their crypto is exchanged for fiat instantly, while merchants still receive traditional currency. The entire process is completely transparent to merchants. This “frictionless” experience removes the biggest technical barrier for ordinary users to adopt crypto assets.

The Ice and Fire of PENGU Tokens

Buoyed by positive ecosystem developments, the PENGU token, Pudgy Penguins’ official token, naturally garners attention. However, secondary market performance often lags behind fundamental expectations.

As of February 13, 2026, data from Gate Market shows PENGU is experiencing a correction similar to the broader market. Looking at its historical trend, this young token exhibits volatility:

2024: Opening at $0.035, closing at $0.040062, showing early vitality.

2025: Underwent sharp market adjustments, opening at $0.032557, closing at $0.012587, with a yearly decline of 61.34%.

2026 to date: Continued downward, opening at $0.012054, recently trading around $0.006, with a year-to-date loss of 48.98%.

Despite recent price pressures, the launch of Pengu Card undoubtedly injects new vitality into the PENGU ecosystem. Combining IP with traditional financial infrastructure like Visa, if scaled broadly to attract outside users, could significantly reshape PENGU’s token economics, providing real utility beyond speculation.

Crowded Sector: From “Wallet” to “Stack” Wars

Pudgy Penguins isn’t the only player sensing the lucrative potential of payment cards. The competition around crypto payment cards has evolved into a “payment stack war,” mainly along three paths:

Full-stack issuance: Companies like Rain bypass traditional banks by becoming Visa principal members, handling issuance and settlement themselves. Rain recently raised $250 million, with a valuation approaching $20 billion, experiencing 30x growth in users and 38x in transaction volume year-over-year.

Coordination layer: Stripe’s $1.1 billion acquisition of Bridge indicates tech giants are betting on aggregation solutions that “don’t care about underlying blockchains.”

Dedicated payment chains: Some new entrants believe general-purpose chains like Ethereum are unsuitable for payments. Bitfinex-backed Stable launched a dedicated payment blockchain at the end of 2025, with pre-pledged funds reaching $20 billion, aiming for zero-Gas fee stablecoin transfers.

Meanwhile, projects like Rain and RedotPay are becoming new favorites for investors like Galaxy, signaling long-term capital confidence in this sector. Even OKX recently launched a compliant stablecoin payment card linked with Mastercard for European users, aiming to seize opportunities under the EU’s MiCA framework.

Summary

For crypto users, products like Pengu Card elevate the “HODL” culture to “HODL and Spend.” No longer must you sell your assets to use them; you can spend directly while enjoying rewards and cashback.

For exchanges like Gate, this presents both challenges and opportunities. The challenge: if users can pay directly from wallets and cards, they might reduce withdrawals to exchanges. The opportunity: it creates vast potential for compliant on/off ramps, fiat on-ramps, and derivatives based on payment data.

Pudgy Penguins partnering with Visa isn’t just a marketing stunt; it’s a strategic offensive against traditional financial fortresses. Although PENGU token prices remain low, as Pengu Card gradually expands in 2026, if it can truly deliver on the promises of “up to 12% rewards” and “7% income,” this wave of “fat penguins” surging through the payments sector could carry the crypto world toward broader mainstream adoption.