Stablecoins do not replace the whole card stack
Cards bundle several products into one consumer experience: a credential, authorization network, fraud controls, credit, rewards, acceptance, dispute rights, and settlement. Stablecoins attack only part of that bundle directly.
Where stablecoins are strongest
They can make value transfer programmable, global, always-on, and inexpensive. That is especially useful when both endpoints are software and neither side needs a conventional consumer checkout flow.
What still has to be rebuilt
Consumer protection, fraud allocation, merchant acceptance, refunds, credit underwriting, loyalty, identity, and compliance are not automatically provided by a token transfer.
The more useful framing
Instead of asking whether stablecoins replace cards, ask which layers are commoditized and which layers remain scarce. Settlement margins can compress while orchestration, identity, risk, and distribution remain valuable.