Neobanks have become a significant distribution channel for financial services in 2026. Their role increasingly extends beyond offering an alternative debit card: large digital providers now compete for everyday account use, savings, borrowing and business payments. At the same time, stablecoins are moving into payment infrastructure, opening another route for transferring value through the apps people already use.

Growth is showing up in customers and deposits

Nubank's second-quarter results provide one measure of that scale. The company reported 139 million customers across Brazil, Mexico and Colombia at the end of June, approximately four million more than in the previous quarter. Its monthly activity rate reached 83.5%, while deposits rose 18% year over year to $45.3 billion. These figures describe an individual business, rather than the entire neobanking market, but they show the size digital banking can reach.

Revolut offers a second illustration. Its 2025 annual report, published in 2026, recorded 68.3 million retail customers, an increase of 30%, and customer balances of £50.2 billion, up 66%. Its current report page now lists more than 80 million retail customers. The dates matter: the annual growth rates cover 2025, while the newer customer milestone reflects the company's subsequent expansion.

Why the role of neobanks matters

Read together, those results suggest that the competition is moving beyond app downloads. Deposits and recurring activity indicate whether customers are placing more of their financial lives with a digital provider. For consumers, the practical appeal is a single place to manage money; for businesses, it can be a way to combine accounts, payments and cross-border activity.

Stablecoins are finding uses outside trading

Visa's September 2026 updates provide evidence of that shift. The company reported more than 160 stablecoin-linked card programmes worldwide, with payment volume on those programmes rising nearly 200% year over year. It also said stablecoin settlement had exceeded a $20 billion annualised run rate. That run rate expresses the pace of activity as a yearly figure; it is not a completed year's total.

In a separate update, Visa cited September research from Allium estimating annual stablecoin payment volume at between $401 billion and $527 billion. Among geographically attributable payment flows analysed by Allium, 43% of B2B volume crossed borders. These are estimates for stablecoin payments, not neobank revenue or total blockchain transfers, which can include trading and other financial activity.

A banking app becomes a bridge to blockchain money

Revolut supplied a concrete example in August, announcing phased testing of EURR, a euro-backed stablecoin, for eligible customers in Denmark, Poland and Portugal. The rollout gives users an option for moving between fiat balances, digital assets and external wallets. It illustrates how a digital banking interface can connect familiar currency services with blockchain-based value transfers.

For smaller entrants, packaged infrastructure is also available. Platforms such as EBank from ATNM Digital Solutions combine branded financial interfaces with account, payment and supported stablecoin functionality, offering one route to creating a neobanking product.

What the 2026 figures tell us

The evidence points to two developments advancing alongside each other: digital providers are reaching larger customer bases, and stablecoins are gaining connections to everyday payment systems. It does not establish that stablecoins caused neobank growth. Their convergence instead suggests a broader role for neobanks as interfaces between traditional accounts and new forms of digital money.