A new survey has put a hard number on something payments people have said anecdotally for two years. Stablecoins are no longer a crypto-native curiosity — they’re becoming default business infrastructure.
Quick Answer: 88% of businesses plan to use stablecoins for payments within 12 months, a 2026 Cybrid survey found. 42% already use them for cross-border payments, driven mainly by cost savings of 35–47% versus traditional rails.
The headline number
Cybrid surveyed 468 executives and business leaders across the US, Canada, and the UK, spanning technology, financial services, and ecommerce. 88% said they were likely or very likely to use stablecoins for payments within the next 12 months. That’s not a fringe result — it’s close to nine in ten decision-makers signaling intent to adopt.
More striking is how many already have. 42% of businesses surveyed said they’re already using stablecoins for cross-border payments. Only 2% described themselves as committed to sticking with traditional payment rails. Put those two numbers side by side and the direction of travel is obvious. The businesses that haven’t moved yet are the exception, not the rule.
Why the shift is happening now?
The survey points to a straightforward answer: money. Businesses already using stablecoins reported average cross-border payment cost savings of 35%. Firms processing more than $100 million a month reported savings as high as 47%. For any company moving meaningful volume across borders, that’s not a marginal efficiency gain. It’s a line-item that shows up on the P&L.
Regulation is the other half of the story. 71% of respondents said regulatory clarity would boost their confidence more than trusted infrastructure or system integration would. That’s a notable finding on its own: businesses aren’t waiting on better technology. They’re waiting on clearer rules. GENIUS Act-compliant stablecoins already exceed $76 billion in market cap. That regulatory groundwork is visibly being laid in real time.
Where the money is actually moving?
According to the report, payroll and contractor payments are the leading use case, followed by supplier payments, customer payments, and treasury management. That’s a sign stablecoins are settling into the unglamorous, high-volume corners of business finance rather than staying confined to trading desks. Paybis data cited alongside the survey adds useful context. Business customers now account for roughly 98% of that platform’s stablecoin payout volume, up sharply from just 36% in 2023.
What this means if you’re in payments or high-risk processing?
For businesses already operating in cross-border or high-friction payment environments, this data is less a prediction than a confirmation. Stablecoins solve a specific, well-understood pain — slow settlement, high FX spread, and dependency on correspondent banking relationships. Those relationships can be slow, expensive, or simply unavailable in certain corridors. This is exactly the gap that high-risk payment processing was built to close, particularly for merchants who’ve been de-risked out of traditional banking.
That said, “likely to use” and “actually using at scale” are two different things. The gap between them is where the real work happens. Regulatory clarity is improving, but it’s uneven across jurisdictions. Volatility is much lower for fiat-pegged stablecoins than for crypto broadly. Even so, it hasn’t been fully stress-tested through a genuine market shock at this scale of business adoption. Integrating stablecoin rails alongside existing card, bank transfer, and local payment method infrastructure still takes real engineering and compliance work — even alongside established alternatives like ACH and eCheck rails. That’s true even with today’s better tooling.
The honest takeaway: the intent-to-adopt number is real and worth paying attention to. But the businesses that benefit most will treat stablecoin integration as a deliberate infrastructure decision. That means choosing specific corridors and use cases where the savings and settlement speed genuinely outweigh the added compliance overhead — not chasing a trend because everyone else says they’re about to.
The bottom line
Nearly nine in ten businesses expect to be using stablecoins within a year. Almost half already are, and they’re saving real money doing it. Whether that momentum converts into durable, long-term usage will depend less on the technology, which is largely ready. It will depend more on how fast the regulatory floor solidifies underneath it.
Sources: Cybrid survey of 468 executives and business leaders, conducted April 28–May 4, 2026, via Cointelegraph and TradersUnion reporting.
FAQ
Why are businesses adopting stablecoins for payments in 2026?
Mainly cost and speed. Businesses already using stablecoins report cross-border payment savings of 35–47% versus traditional rails, and regulatory clarity from frameworks like the GENIUS Act is removing much of the earlier hesitation.
What’s the most common business use case for stablecoins?
Payroll and contractor payments lead, followed by supplier payments, customer payments, and treasury management — high-volume, recurring flows rather than one-off transactions.
Are stablecoins ready to replace traditional payment rails entirely?
Not yet. Regulatory clarity is still uneven across jurisdictions, and integrating stablecoin rails alongside card, bank transfer, and local payment methods takes real engineering and compliance work.
