Only one of 148 businesses surveyed by Cleveland Federal Reserve researchers was using stablecoins in September 2025, despite promises of faster and cheaper payments. Seven others planned to adopt them, while most had no plans or were uncertain.
The research, published on September 28, 2026, examines why a new payment option can struggle to attract business customers even after lawmakers establish a regulatory framework.
The sample covered firms active in the Fed’s Fourth District, comprising Ohio and parts of Pennsylvania, Kentucky and West Virginia. Responses were collected from September 18 to 25, 2025. The small regional survey is not a nationwide measure of current adoption.
One respondent captured the operational concern: “We have enough complexity in our business and probably don’t need to add this.”
What are stablecoins?
Stablecoins are digital tokens designed to maintain a steady value against another asset, usually a currency such as the US dollar. A dollar-pegged token seeks to remain worth $1, although its market price and the holder’s ability to redeem it are not guaranteed.
Circle’s USDC is one example. Circle says it backs the token with cash and cash-equivalent assets. Stablecoins can move between compatible digital wallets on blockchains, shared electronic records of transactions.
That can offer a different route for moving money internationally. But the recipient may still need ordinary currency to pay employees, suppliers or taxes. Converting the tokens becomes part of the payment’s cost and timing.
Businesses need savings across the whole payment
Among 102 survey participants asked about adoption factors, 50 selected customer demand, 49 wanted more time to observe the market and 42 wanted stronger evidence of savings or efficiency. Respondents could select several options, so these groups overlap.
A business evaluating stablecoins has to consider more than the transfer itself. Staff need procedures for approving payments, controlling access to wallets and matching receipts to invoices. Accounting software and internal checks must work with the new payment method.
Those implementation costs need to be weighed against the transactions a company actually makes. A service that saves money on frequent international supplier payments may offer little benefit to a business whose customers and suppliers all prefer domestic bank transfers.
In a March 2026 analysis, Federal Reserve economists explained how stablecoins could shorten cross-border payment chains. Conventional transfers can pass through several correspondent banks, institutions that process payments for other banks.
The economists also cautioned that large banks might remain intermediaries because they can handle currency conversion and compliance checks across countries. Their example assumed low costs for accessing stablecoin infrastructure; higher access costs would weaken the business case.
Our earlier coverage of the IMF’s assessment of stablecoin payments examines the same trade-off between possible savings and the financial risks of wider use.
Regulation is still taking shape
The GENIUS Act became law in July 2025, establishing a US framework for payment stablecoins. Implementation remains underway. On September 24, 2026, the Fed requested comments on proposals covering reserve backing, capital, risk management and bank applications to issue the tokens.
These are proposed rules for Fed-supervised issuers, not a blanket approval of existing stablecoins. Reserve backing means holding assets against outstanding tokens so that redemption requests can be met.
Payment stablecoins do not carry federal deposit insurance. The GENIUS Act also prohibits covered issuers from paying holders interest or yield solely for holding, using or retaining their tokens. That restriction on issuers should not be confused with a ban on every third-party rewards arrangement.
For a finance department, accepting a customer’s payment and keeping a stablecoin balance are separate decisions. The Cleveland researchers identified businesses that accepted stablecoins through payment processors and converted the proceeds into dollars.
That offers providers a route to business customers without requiring those customers to become digital-asset treasury managers. A processor can handle the token transfer while the merchant receives conventional money. The merchant still needs to establish what the service costs, when the funds become available and who handles failed or disputed payments.
Cover: Editorial composite of representative dollar banknotes by Burst/Pexels (CC0) and Circle’s USDC mark (CC BY-SA 4.0). Cropped and arranged by Market Business News; composite licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. The image does not show a transaction or imply endorsement by Circle or the Federal Reserve.
