Nearly 4 in 10 US Merchants Accept Cryptocurrency, PayPal Survey Shows

_{Photo credit: Antonio Solano / Shutterstock.com}

Some 84% of US merchants believe payments with digital assets will be a mainstream option for transactions within the next five years, according to a new survey by the online payments system PayPal and the National Cryptocurrency Association. Nearly 40% of surveyed merchants already accept digital assets for payment at checkout.

The survey, conducted in October 2025 among 619 payment strategy stakeholders across affected sectors like retail, hospitality, travel, gaming, and digital goods, found that a significant proportion of merchants in the United States now accept cryptocurrencies as a means of payment. 

Concerns over complexity have continued to be a barrier to the mainstream usage of adoption of cryptocurrencies for payment. However, large US enterprises like Starbucks accept cryptocurrencies, while PayPal has set up a cryptocurrency payment tool to allow merchants in the United States to more easily accept cryptocurrencies. It has claimed that the transaction fee for cryptocurrency payments is lower than for credit cards.

Customer demand, particularly among Millennial and Gen Z consumers in the hospitality and travel, digital goods and gaming, and retail and e-commerce sectors, is encouraging more merchants to accept cryptocurrencies as payment. Nearly 90% of surveyed merchants said they had been asked whether they accepted cryptocurrencies. Digital asset payments among merchants that accept them account for 26% of their total sales. 

PayPal’s vice president and general manager, May Zabaneh, said the data indicates a transition from experimentation to routine use. “Adoption is being driven by customer demand for faster, more flexible ways to pay — and once businesses start accepting crypto, they see real value,” she said.