Foreword
Welcome to our annual survey at the intersection of payments and digital assets. Last time we did this was in 2023, when we revealed that a staggering 88% of respondents were eager to embrace digital assets for payments.
The thing is, two years ago the payments industry was still trying to understand how to fit blockchain and digital assets into an international payments system that was set up in the 1970s. So we spent 2024 working with early adopters like WorldVisa, Banking Circle, XXXX to build tangible solutions. Guess what we landed on: stablecoins.
We were so busy making it work, we didn’t have time to run a survey last year. But this year we did—focusing on stablecoins. Simply put, any conversation about payments, especially cross-border, is incomplete without them.
Here’s why stablecoins get the spotlight: They’re becoming non-negotiable for payments. Our survey shows payment acquirers, processors, and fintechs are already seriously engaged, fueling bank adoption alongside a tidal wave of regulatory clarity in the past six months.
By the end of this year, if you haven’t accelerated your stablecoin planning, your competitors will be lapping you.
They’ll dominate emerging markets, where stablecoins’ advantages over the traditional cross-border payment system are meeting urgent customer demand today. They’ll capture the rapidly growing market of consumers and businesses who are not just comfortable with digital money, they expect it.
This survey shows that once again, we called it. The shift towards stablecoins is not a distant possibility but a current, course-altering reality—just look at the facts we present here.
If you’d like to talk more about how your payments business will benefit from stablecoins—and how to build the most secure and scalable infrastructure for every step of your stablecoin journey, let us know.
Goldi
Senior Vice President, Payments and Network, Fireblocks
About the Survey
The findings of this research are based on an online survey conducted by Payments Dive from March 10, 2025 to March 26, 2025. Most of the 295 participants (61%) are C-suite executives – the remainder are heads of Strategy, Innovation, or Product or specialists in the payments, finance, compliance, or legal functions. They work for traditional banks, cryptocurrency services providers, challenger banks, or non-bank payment service providers including merchant account providers and payment gateways.
Executive Summary
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PART I: Stablecoins: The Indispensable Force in Global Payments
Our 2025 survey hones in on stablecoins because they are top of mind in the global payments industry. This is not hype. This year’s survey shows that the momentum is real: stablecoins are moving from pilot to P&L.
Fact 1: 90% of Payment Companies Embrace Stablecoins with Cross-Border Payments Leading the Way
When it comes to stablecoins for payments, it’s no longer about being an early adopter or first mover– the industry is already integrating stablecoins into the global payments ecosystem.
Cross-Border Payments Top Stablecoin Use Case
Merchant settlement ties top spot with cross-border payments for card facilitators
In our 2023 survey, a 72% of respondents across all categories showed keen interest in utilizing stablecoins for merchant settlements. While the industry’s overall focus leans towards cross-border payments, merchant settlement remains significant for payment processors today, reflecting stablecoins’ 24/7/365 settlement power.
With such a focus on the cross-border payments and payments acceptance use cases, are traditional banks at risk of losing out on leveraging the full advantages of stablecoins—and finding themselves behind in the global digital asset ecosystem?
Stablecoin activity on the Fireblocks platform soared in 2024. It accounted for a staggering 55% of the $3 trillion we processed across 170 million transactions.
Fact 2: Global Payments Industry Embraces the Transformative Power of Stablecoins
Saving cost isn’t the point here: the industry is seizing the transformative benefits of stablecoins, emphasizing speed, efficiency, and operational advantages.
Stablecoins deliver reinvention where regulatory compliance, operational agility, and technological compatibility meet.
31% of larger payments companies report Board mandates for stablecoin adoption.
Boards at major payments enterprises recognize that adopting stablecoins is a strategic necessity, “It’s about retaining competitiveness against new crypto-savvy entrants and tapping into new client bases and markets that are increasingly aligned with digital asset ecosystems.
Payment companies grew their transaction volume on the Fireblocks platform by over 150% this past year, to reach $40 billion per quarter. Top use case? B2B payments by far in terms of volume.
Fact 3: 86% of Payments Firms Confident in Stablecoins’ Business Case and ROI: Focus Shifts to Implementation
Payments industry signals readiness for action on stablecoins
3 out of 4 are confident in strong customer demand and readiness for stablecoin adoption
Only 14% cite lack of internal expertise as a barrier to adopting stablecoins
75% don’t see regulatory uncertainty as a significant barrier to stablecoin adoption
86% say they can access the partnerships they need to integrate stablecoins in their operations and offerings
Inadequate infrastructure (e.g., block chain wallets) a concern for only 18%
Why are we embracing stablecoins now? Before, it wasn’t about questioning the value of stablecoins for payments. It was more around doing it at the right time, properly and at scale. A few years ago the ecosystem wasn’t ready for the scale, the security, the compliance that we need to to serve our global merchants. Today it is.
The next stage of scaling stablecoins demands attention to structural issues
A third highlight banking and liquidity challenges with stablecoins, underscoring the need for assurances of sufficient liquidity and bank support for handling large volumes worldwide
Payments are mission-critical: 78% cite the need to ensure security of payments with stablecoins
1 in four express concern about integration challenges with existing payment systems
FACT 4: Regulatory Breakthroughs Fuel Stablecoin Adoption
Just two short years ago, lack of clarity and potential changes in regulations were a top concern for 85% of respondents—and 48% said the lack of regulatory clarity was their main reason for not even entering the digital assets space.
Today, less than one in four consider this an issue when it comes to stablecoins.
Regulatory clarity and compliance improvements are now perceived as accelerators for the industry’s adoption of stablecoins.
PART II: Running Toward Stablecoin Integration: Varied Regional Approaches on the Global Track
FACT 5: Latin America’s Sprint: Customer Demand is Driving Fast Action
In the metaphorical track meet of stablecoin adoption, Latin America takes on the role of the sprinter, driven by customers who need stablecoins for cross-border transactions. 61% say that stablecoins get them on fast track to expand into new markets.
The diversity of local payment methods across LatAm results in a fragmented payment landscape for users and merchants. The combination of stablecoins and access to local pay-in/out methods
helps us deliver cross border payments that are quicker, safer, more transparent, and more affordable for our regional customers compared to traditional models like correspondent banking.
The region is pushing forward on stablecoins for payments as the regulators pick up their pace, too. The Latin American
payment companies — and the ecommerce merchants, service providers, exporters, and importers they serve, tell us
stablecoins take the pain out of managing money movement. With regulatory clarity on the horizon, these early stablecoin
adopters are set to thrive in one of the world’s most advanced markets for digital assets.
