Mastering Future Payments: An In-Depth Analysis of Tangem Hardware Wallet and Tangem Pay

As a hardware wallet manufacturer renowned for innovation and security, Tangem has produced over 2,000,000 hardware wallet cards and maintains a record of zero hack incidents.

Today, this Swiss company is transforming cryptocurrency from a simple storage and investment tool into a practical financial solution seamlessly integrated into daily consumption through its new product, Tangem Pay.

01 Product Evolution: From Secure Storage to Seamless Payments

Founded in 2018, Tangem’s original goal was to solve the complex and daunting private key management issues in self-custody of cryptocurrencies. The company replaced traditional 24-word mnemonic phrases with a credit card-sized NFC smart card or a zirconia ceramic ring.

Users can complete all operations such as setup, sending, receiving, and staking assets in the Tangem app by simply tapping their phone via NFC, taking less than 3 minutes.

However, Tangem’s vision extends beyond “storage.” The company believes that if crypto assets cannot be used for everyday spending, they will never become an effective financial solution. This philosophy directly led to the creation of Tangem Pay.

In November 2025, Tangem announced a partnership with Visa and payments infrastructure company Paera to launch Tangem Pay. This service allows users to link a virtual Visa card directly to their Tangem wallet app.

02 Core Innovation: How Tangem Pay Works

The core mechanism of Tangem Pay cleverly balances self-custody autonomy with payment convenience. Its operation is based on a clear chain:

Users deposit USDC on the Polygon network into a special smart contract account associated with Tangem Pay. The funds remain on-chain at all times, with full ownership controlled by the user.

When making purchases online or at offline merchants, users can pay via a virtual Visa card linked with Apple Pay or Google Pay.

When a payment occurs, the system instantly exchanges the required USDC from the user’s smart contract account into USD and completes settlement through the Visa network.

The key innovation lies in its “dual-key model”: users always hold the private key to their assets, while a partner, Rain, holds only another key used to authorize payments, without the authority to access unspent assets.

03 Security and Privacy: The Unbreakable Foundation

Security is the cornerstone of all Tangem products. Its hardware wallets feature secure element chips developed by Samsung Semiconductor, certified EAL6+, providing the highest level of protection against various intrusive and non-intrusive attacks.

Unlike traditional payment cards, Tangem Pay continues its hardware wallet’s privacy-first philosophy. While using the payment feature requires completing KYC (Know Your Customer), this only applies to the Tangem Pay balance.

The user’s main Tangem wallet remains unaffected, maintaining anonymity and decentralization. As Tangem Pay’s CEO states, “No one can access the Tangem wallet itself.”

04 Market Data and Token Performance

In addition to pioneering in hardware and payments, the Tangem ecosystem also includes digital assets related to its platform.

According to official Tangem information, as of November 28, 2025, the 2025 TOKEN operates on the Solana network.

Its market cap is approximately $11.72K, with a 24-hour trading volume of about $1.33, and both circulating and max supply are 1,000,000,000 tokens. Investors should always refer to real-time market data on platforms like Gate when checking such assets.

05 Strategic Deployment and Industry Impact

Every step Tangem takes is backed by clear strategic planning and capital support. In 2025, the company completed an $8 million funding round led by Shima Capital.

Adding to previous funding led by SBI Digital Asset Holdings, the total funds raised amount to $23 million, which are being used to expand its product range.

The launch of Tangem Pay is a key strategic move. The service was initially launched in late November 2025 in major countries across the US, Latin America, and Asia-Pacific, covering 42 jurisdictions including Australia, Japan, and Singapore.

The European rollout is scheduled for 2026, aligning with the EU’s MiCA regulations for crypto assets. The company expects that by the end of 2026, active users of this solution will exceed ten million.

This product is seen by industry observers as breaking a long-standing deadlock: users no longer need to choose between the convenience of “fully centralized custodial payments” and the cumbersome process of manual exchange for re-spending.

It combines the autonomy of self-custody wallets with the reach of the global Visa payment network, truly bridging the gap between traditional finance and digital assets.

Future Outlook

An early tester shared their experience on social media: “Wearing the Tangem Ring, I just tap my phone to pay when shopping. The clerk only saw I used Apple Pay, but I know I just spent real USDC from my on-chain wallet.”

As the Tangem Pay virtual card gradually becomes available in 42 countries and regions worldwide, and physical cards are scheduled to launch in Europe in 2026, this experiment aimed at connecting the crypto world with the real economy has only just begun.