How a crypto startup quietly siphoned 470,000 Binance users to build a $4 billion card empire

Binance-affiliated entities filed a Hong Kong petition against RedotPay's founders, alleging the payment startup used its partnership with Binance to divert more than 470,000 Binance Card customers into its own competing stablecoin card.

As Bloomberg News reported, Binance claims $472.8 million in losses, built on an estimated $925 lifetime value per customer, and says RedotPay received roughly $304 million in user funds routed through Binance Pay.

RedotPay denies the allegations and says the case will not affect its daily operations.

RedotPay says it now serves more than 8 million users and processes roughly $14 billion in annualized payment volume, a scale that reportedly has the company considering an IPO at a valuation above $4 billion.

Binance alleges that scale came partly from customers RedotPay was never supposed to have.
The value of a stablecoin product lies in whatever app the customer opens every day to spend, top up, or check a balance.

That app captures conversion fees, card-spending revenue, merchant data, and the chance to sell the customer something else later.

Binance claims that RedotPay used a funding rail meant for one purpose to build a direct relationship with those same customers.

Asset in dispute Binance’s alleged role RedotPay’s alleged gain Why it matters Binance Card customers Original customer relationship More than 470,000 users allegedly diverted User ownership became the disputed asset Binance Pay funding rail Top-up route into partner product Roughly $304 million in user funds Funding rails can become acquisition channels Stablecoin card activity Spending use case Binance wanted to retain Direct card relationship with users Daily spending creates engagement and data Customer lifetime value Binance estimates $925 per customer $472.8 million claimed loss Shows how valuable payment users have become RedotPay scale Binance alleges partnership helped growth 8 million users, $14 billion annualized volume Stablecoin cards are now large enough to litigate Every stablecoin partnership carries the same tension

Coinbase shows the same structure playing out without a lawsuit attached. Circle pays Coinbase for USDC distribution and shares reserve economics based on how much USDC sits within Coinbase's products, according to Circle's own public filings.

Coinbase remains USDC's largest distribution partner and also backs Open USD, a rival stablecoin model built with Visa, Mastercard and more than 140 other companies. The model splits reserve income among the businesses driving adoption.

Circle needs Coinbase to reach users, and Coinbase gains negotiating power by making stablecoins compete for space inside its own app.

Visa and Stripe show the same dynamic without any conflicts yet. Visa's cards give Stripe-owned Bridge the merchant reach it needs to let apps like Phantom and MetaMask spend stablecoin balances, while Bridge gives Visa a route into wallet-native crypto spending.

Both companies continue to expand beyond that arrangement.

Stripe now offers stablecoin wallets, card issuing, and its own token infrastructure through Bridge and Privy.

Visa introduced its own platform for minting, moving, and settling stablecoins in July. Visa says it already backs more than 130 stablecoin-linked card programs across more than 50 countries and expects that number to roughly double this year.

Bridge-enabled Visa cards are already live in 18 countries, with plans to reach more than 100 by year-end.

Mastercard agreed to acquire stablecoin infrastructure firm BVNK for up to $1.8 billion, buying the plumbing that determines how stablecoin payments are issued, converted, and settled.

Mastercard's own crypto partner program includes Binance, Coinbase-linked wallet providers, Circle, PayPal, MetaMask and dozens of other firms, many of which compete directly with each other.

Owning BVNK gives Mastercard a stake in the infrastructure sitting underneath all of them.

A similar fight is opening between stablecoin issuers and the platforms that distribute their tokens. Open USD is built to solve this on the issuer's side by splitting nearly all of its reserve income with the businesses that drive adoption.

That model squeezes any issuer whose distributors currently take a smaller cut. The conflict usually shows up in quieter ways: a wallet making one stablecoin the default, an exchange waiving fees for a preferred token, or a card rewarding whichever stablecoin its partner favors.

Phantom and MetaMask can now connect a stablecoin balance directly to a Visa card via infrastructure like Bridge, allowing users to spend without routing funds back through a centralized exchange.

The exchange may still supply stablecoins or liquidity behind the scenes, but the wallet captures the balance, spending data, rewards, and daily engagement that previously belonged to the exchange.

Relationship Why they need each other Where they now overlap Strategic tension Binance / RedotPay Exchange users and payment-card distribution Competing stablecoin cards A funding partner can become the user-facing app Circle / Coinbase USDC distribution and reserve sharing Coinbase also backs Open USD Distributor can make stablecoins compete for placement Visa / Bridge-Stripe Visa gives merchant reach; Bridge gives wallet-native crypto access Both are expanding stablecoin infrastructure Card network and infrastructure provider move up the stack Mastercard / BVNK Mastercard needed stablecoin infrastructure Mastercard is buying the infrastructure layer Partners may sit on rails Mastercard owns Exchanges / wallet cards Exchanges supply liquidity and stablecoins Wallets capture spending and balances Exchange risks becoming a funding pipe Issuers / distributors Issuers need circulation Distributors control defaults, fees and rewards Reserve income becomes bargaining power How the fight over the customer plays out

The stakes are concrete for the people using these products. A top-up route that worked yesterday can stop working if a partnership ends, and rewards can tilt toward whichever stablecoin a company wants to promote.

Cards can be migrated to a new issuer with little warning, and support can fragment across a wallet, a card issuer, and an exchange, each blaming the others when something breaks.

The tokens themselves stay transferable on-chain, but the experience of using them depends on private commercial deals between companies that compete with each other as often as they cooperate.

The bull case is that this competition makes the products better for their users. Apps are starting to disclose which partner operates the wallet, card, or settlement layer beneath their brand.

Balances become portable across providers, funding routes multiply, and companies compete on price and reliability to keep customers.

The bear case is that customer capture becomes the business model. Companies keep using partner rails to acquire users, then quietly build their own card, wallet, or stablecoin to keep them.

User-facing feature Hidden dependency What can change Card top-ups Exchange, wallet, processor or payment rail Route disappears or new fees appear Rewards Preferred stablecoin or card partner Rewards shift toward one token or provider Spending access Card issuer and network relationship Card is migrated, paused or restricted Conversion pricing Liquidity provider or infrastructure partner Spread widens or conversion becomes unavailable Withdrawals Wallet, issuer and compliance stack Funds remain on-chain but become harder to move through the app Customer support Multiple companies behind one product Users get bounced between wallet, issuer, card provider and exchange Stablecoin default App-level product decision Users are nudged into the token that benefits the platform most

Funding routes disappear with little notice, rewards get restructured to box users into a single provider, and disputes like Binance's against RedotPay become a routine cost of doing business.

Stablecoins made the dollar portable across borders, and now stablecoin cards are making the customer just as portable between companies.

The post How a crypto startup quietly siphoned 470,000 Binance users to build a $4 billion card empire appeared first on CryptoSlate.