• Stablecoin volume: headline vs payments
  • US merchant acceptance (PayPal and the National Cryptocurrency Association)

Cryptocurrency payment figures are hard to compare because sources measure different things. Some count every on-chain stablecoin transfer. Some count only payments that a group of payment companies could attribute. Some count orders on one processor, or survey a sample of merchants in one country. This page lists figures we could check at the original source, with the period, sample and geography each one covers. We dropped figures from the earlier version of this page that we couldn't trace to an original source.

About this page: Billed publishes this page. Each figure below comes from the linked original source, opened on October 29, 2026. Nothing here is investment advice, and no figure is a forecast of prices.

Stablecoin volume: headline vs payments

All stablecoin activity (Chainalysis). Chainalysis says stablecoins processed $28 trillion in "real economic volume" in 2025. That is its adjusted volume, a metric that, in its words, "filters for organic economic activity like payments, remittances, and settlement"; raw on-chain volume, which includes liquidity provisioning, bot activity and maximum extractable value (MEV) transfers, is larger. Chainalysis says adjusted volume has grown at a 133% compound annual growth rate since 2023 (Chainalysis, published April 8, 2026). The same article projects much larger future volumes; we don't repeat forecasts here.

Payments specifically (Artemis). Artemis's October 2025 report, Stablecoin Payments from the Ground Up, measured payments directly (Artemis report, PDF):

  • Sample: 22 stablecoin-based payment companies surveyed, plus estimates for 11 more firms.
  • Attributed payments: $136 billion settled between January 2023 and August 2025.
  • Run rate: payments in the sample annualized at $122 billion as of August 2025. Artemis says this is roughly one percent of all nominal stablecoin settlement on blockchains.
  • By type, annualized as of August 2025:
    • B2B payments: $76 billion, the most active type;
    • peer-to-peer (P2P): $19 billion;
    • card-linked payments: $18 billion;
    • B2C: $3.3 billion;
    • prefunding: $3.6 billion.
  • Which stablecoin: Tether's USDT was the most used by the sampled firms, with around 85% market share by volume.
  • Cross-border: Artemis cites a Bank for International Settlements (BIS) estimate of cross-border flows of around $400 billion per year settled between USDC and USDT.

The gap between the two sources is the point: $28 trillion of adjusted stablecoin activity in 2025, against $122 billion a year of payments that payment companies could attribute in August 2025. When you see a large "stablecoin payments" number, check which of these it measures.

US merchant acceptance (PayPal and the National Cryptocurrency Association)

A survey by The Harris Poll for the National Cryptocurrency Association, released with PayPal on January 27, 2026 (PayPal newsroom):

  • Sample: 619 US payment-strategy decision makers in retail and e-commerce, hospitality and travel, luxury and specialty retail, and digital goods and gaming, surveyed online October 21–27, 2025. Accurate to within ±3.9 percentage points at a 95% confidence level.
  • 39% of merchants already accept cryptocurrency at checkout.
  • By company size: 50% of large enterprises (over $500 million in annual revenue) accept crypto, against 34% of small businesses and 32% of midsize companies.
  • 88% report customer inquiries about paying with crypto.
  • Among merchants that accept crypto, it represents 26% of total sales, and 72% say their crypto sales increased over the past year.
  • 84% believe crypto payments will become common within five years.
  • 90% say they would be likely to accept crypto if setup were as simple as accepting credit cards.

These figures describe the surveyed industries in the US, not merchants everywhere.

One processor's view: CoinGate, 2025

CoinGate is a crypto payment processor; its report covers payments on its own platform from January to December 2025 (CoinGate 2025 report, last updated July 28, 2026):

  • Orders: 1.42 million crypto payments in 2025, down 15% from 1.68 million in 2024. CoinGate attributes the decline to "a combination of structural, regulatory, and ecosystem-level changes", including a change among a small number of high-volume use cases.
  • Average cart value: €108.
  • Payment share by asset:
    • Bitcoin 22.1%, back to first place;
    • Litecoin 14.4% (from 13.1% in 2024);
    • TRX 11.5% (from 9.1%);
    • ETH 10.6% (from 8.9%);
    • SOL 4.6% (from 2.1%).
  • Stablecoins: 29.8% of all payments. USDC's share of stablecoin payments rose from 2.5% in 2024 to 44.2% in 2025, and USDC orders were up 1,264% year over year. CoinGate says USDT "was phased out per MiCA requirements" during the year.
  • Settlement: fiat settlements fell from 73% to 62.5% of payments, and settlements in crypto rose from 27% to 37.5%. Settlements in stablecoins were 25.2% of all payments, up from 16.7%.
  • Bitcoin Lightning: 11.3% of Bitcoin payments went through the Lightning Network; the other 88.7% settled on-chain.
  • Networks: 62.1% of Ethereum-based payments were in ETH and 26.6% in USDC. Base, integrated in February 2025, saw 63.6% of its payments in USDC and 36.4% in ETH. Polygon usage grew 19% and Arbitrum 21% year over year.
  • Countries: US shoppers were at the top, the Netherlands rose from fifth to third, and Nigeria stayed in the top five.

This is one processor's customer base, so it isn't a market share for crypto payments overall.

Where crypto adoption is highest (Chainalysis index)

The 2025 Chainalysis Global Crypto Adoption Index, published September 2, 2025, is headed "India and the United States Lead Cryptocurrency Adoption" (Chainalysis). It ranks 151 countries from four sub-indices of estimated transaction volumes, weighted by population and purchasing power, and estimates country activity from web traffic to crypto services. It measures crypto adoption broadly, not payments to merchants.

Regulation that shapes stablecoin payments

  • United States: President Trump signed the GENIUS Act into law on July 18, 2025. The White House says it creates the first federal regulatory system for stablecoins, and that it requires "100% reserve backing with liquid assets like U.S. dollars or short-term Treasuries" and monthly public disclosures of reserve composition (White House fact sheet).
  • European Union: the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) sets EU-wide rules for crypto-assets, including issuers of asset-referenced tokens (Title III) and e-money tokens (Title IV). Under MiCA's transitional measures, which Member States could choose to apply, firms that provided crypto-asset services under national law before December 30, 2024 could continue until July 1, 2026 at the latest, or until they were granted or refused MiCA authorization. That transitional period has ended (ESMA).

These describe the frameworks, not what any business must do. If you plan to accept or hold crypto, get advice for the jurisdictions you operate in.

What the figures mean for a business that invoices

  • Ask what a "crypto payments" number counts. Total stablecoin activity (Chainalysis: $28 trillion adjusted in 2025) and attributed payments (Artemis: $122 billion annualized in August 2025) differ by orders of magnitude.
  • B2B is the largest stablecoin payment type in the Artemis sample. If your clients are businesses abroad, that's the segment where stablecoin payments are most active.
  • Settlement is a choice. On CoinGate, 62.5% of payments were still settled in fiat in 2025. A processor can convert to your currency, so you don't have to hold crypto to accept it.
  • Check the rules where you operate before accepting or holding stablecoins; the US and EU frameworks above are different.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What percentage of businesses accept cryptocurrency?

In a US survey of 619 payment decision makers in retail, e-commerce, travel, luxury and digital goods (The Harris Poll for the National Cryptocurrency Association, with PayPal, October 2025), 39% said their business already accepts cryptocurrency at checkout. Acceptance was 50% at large enterprises, 34% at small businesses and 32% at midsize companies. The survey covers those US industries only.

What is the most popular cryptocurrency for payments?

It depends on the source. On the CoinGate platform in 2025, Bitcoin had the largest payment share at 22.1%, and USDC was 44.2% of stablecoin payments. Among the payment companies in Artemis's 2025 sample, Tether's USDT had around 85% of stablecoin payment volume.

How much volume do stablecoins process?

Chainalysis puts 2025 adjusted stablecoin volume, which filters out activity such as bot and MEV transfers, at $28 trillion. Payments that Artemis could attribute to 22 surveyed and 11 estimated payment companies annualized at $122 billion in August 2025, with B2B the largest type at $76 billion.

Do businesses that accept crypto have to hold it?

No. A processor can settle in your own currency. On CoinGate in 2025, 62.5% of payments were settled in fiat and 37.5% in crypto, including 25.2% in stablecoins.

What is the average size of a crypto payment?

On CoinGate in 2025, the average cart value was €108. That is one processor's customer base, not a market-wide average.

How are stablecoins regulated?

In the US, the GENIUS Act, signed July 18, 2025, requires stablecoin issuers to hold 100% reserve backing in liquid assets such as US dollars or short-term Treasuries and to publish their reserve composition monthly, according to the White House. In the EU, MiCA sets rules for issuers of asset-referenced tokens and e-money tokens. Other jurisdictions have their own rules.

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