Stablecoins and cryptocurrencies have become part of the mainstream business conversation but not part of the general plumbing. Banks are experimenting with crypto trading desks, investment funds, custody and blockchain for settlement and payments. Payment providers are building new rails for cross-border business payments, supplier payments and treasury operations. Policymakers are debating rules aimed at combating money laundering and illicit use by bad actors, with fragmented oversight in the United States handled by multiple agencies, including the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Reserve and the Office of Foreign Assets Control. Yet despite this broad movement, the question for most middle market companies now is not how to optimize a digital asset strategy but whether to engage at all.
These currencies might cut new opportunities for the payments industry, but they also pose new risks. Cryptocurrencies (digital currencies not backed by a government or a physical asset) can be a highly risky bet with wild price swings. Stablecoins (digital tokens designed to maintain a stable value by being tied to a traditional currency, such as the U.S. dollar) are less volatile but come with drawbacks.
Most middle market firms aren’t even thinking about using either asset anytime soon. Just 13% of firms use stablecoins, and 5% use cryptocurrencies. Interest in using digital assets generally remained flat or even declined throughout 2025.
Both promise faster money movement and new ways to transact. But both also raise hard questions about regulation, accounting, liquidity and risk. For finance leaders responsible for safeguarding cash flow and ensuring compliance, those questions seem to matter more than the technology itself.
These are just some of the findings detailed in “Waiting for Certainty: Why Most CFOs Are Holding Back on Crypto and Stablecoins,” the latest installment of the PYMNTS Intelligence exclusive series, The 2026 Certainty Project. This edition examines the factors that aid and hinder middle market firms’ adoption of cryptocurrencies and stablecoins. It draws on insights from a survey of 60 CFOs at U.S.-based middle market companies with annual revenues between $100 million and $1 billion. The study was conducted from Jan. 13, 2026, to Jan. 21, 2026.
Use of Digital Assets
Digital currency use remains the exception, not the norm, as uncertainty hampers interest.
Most middle market firms have not even considered using digital assets, though adoption of stablecoins is further along than that of cryptocurrencies. Fifty-eight percent of CFOs say they haven’t considered using stablecoins. That share rises to seven in 10 for cryptocurrencies. Conversely, only 13% of firms currently use stablecoins, and just 5% use cryptocurrencies.
Adoption is concentrated in selected segments. It is highest among services firms and, curiously, lowest among technology companies. Middle market firms with higher revenues are more likely to use stablecoins and cryptocurrencies. Firms operating in environments with low levels of uncertainty about the business environment are most likely to use these digital assets.1 It would seem, by contrast, that high uncertainty proves to be a major barrier to adoption.
Interest in digital assets holds steady overall, with firms experiencing high levels of uncertainty pulling back the most.
Low uncertainty firms are most likely to have increased their interest in using digital assets in 2025. Specifically, 39% expressed greater interest in stablecoins and 19% in cryptocurrencies. Likewise, they’re the least likely to have become less interested, at 16% and 23%, respectively. Clearly, though, even low uncertainty companies were more likely to have turned away from crypto than to have become more enthusiastic.
High uncertainty firms are retrenching the most. The majority, 55%, became less interested in both stablecoins and digital wallets. Only 9% increased their interest in stablecoins, and none increased their interest in cryptocurrencies.
Overall, firms were about equally likely to have increased or decreased their usage of stablecoins over the course of the year. However, they were nearly three times as likely to have pulled back on using crypto as to have increased their adoption. More common, however, was interest remaining flat. Half of all firms’ enthusiasm remained unchanged, and 57% maintained their interest. Stablecoins appear more polarizing, whereas cryptocurrencies are generally decreasing in popularity.
When firms do use digital assets, they turn to trusted providers like banks.
Among the small segment of middle market firms using stablecoins and cryptocurrencies, bank-integrated solutions are the most popular. Twelve percent of CFOs said they had already accessed stablecoins through bank-integrated solutions. Meanwhile, just 8% did so through a payments or treasury FinTech, and 5% did so via self-custody wallets, not custodial wallets through banks or exchanges. Just 2% used a regulated exchange or custody platform. With cryptocurrencies, these shares are even smaller. Just 3% used a payments or treasury FinTech, and 2% used a regulated exchange or custody platform. Apparently, when companies do use digital assets, they want to do so within familiar rails that reduce treasury and compliance frictions.
Barriers to Adoption
Regulatory and operational uncertainty are the top barriers to adoption.
Concerns around rules and regulations are proving to be the biggest hurdle. Two in three middle market firms say regulatory or compliance uncertainty is a key issue when it comes to using stablecoins for business payments or treasury. More than three in four say the same of cryptocurrencies.
Beyond that, the obstacles are operational and commercial. Roughly four in 10 firms report concerns about integration with existing financial systems. So even when they are willing, firms cannot necessarily readily deploy these digital assets within their technology stacks and workflows.
Notably, companies are more concerned about demand for stablecoins than for cryptocurrencies. Nearly half (47%) worry about customer demand for the former, whereas 27% cite this as a concern for the latter. Meanwhile, they are more worried about vendor acceptance for crypto than for stablecoins, at 38% versus 33%. Without wider adoption among customers and suppliers, it remains difficult for businesses to fully embrace digital assets.
While regulatory and compliance uncertainty is the top barrier across the board, the level of anxiety varies by industry and uncertainty level. Technology firms are the most likely to see this as a barrier (94% for crypto and 63% for stablecoins). This sector is also the most hesitant to integrate digital assets into its existing systems.
Goods firms, understandably, are the most anxious about limited acceptance by suppliers and low customer demand. They also show the most distrust of digital assets, so they might not adopt them even if their customers and vendors were to increase their usage or demand.
Firms with low levels of uncertainty are less likely to cite any of these barriers. The implication is that when companies are on firmer ground, they feel more ready to embrace less-proven technologies.
Firms using digital assets treat them as a payment rail rather than a treasury instrument and quickly convert them into U.S. dollars.
Firms that have adopted stablecoins tend to use them most for sending and receiving day-to-day payments. Eighty-eight percent of users leverage stablecoins to pay domestic suppliers, and 63% to receive cross-border payments. Half of firms use them to settle with payment or financial service providers. While usage for receiving cross-border payments is relatively high, only 38% use them to send funds to international vendors. The same low share uses them for payments with crypto-native partners.
When companies do transact using digital assets, they usually switch back to U.S. dollars (USD) as soon as possible. In fact, firms that received payments via cryptocurrencies immediately converted them to USD in 100% of cases. Almost as strikingly, 88% of stablecoin payments received by firms were converted to USD right away. Clearly, firms do not want to retain their exposure for long.
Widespread Use
Stablecoins have a clearer path to wider CFO usage than cryptocurrencies, but even they remain a low priority.
CFOs don’t expect digital assets to become a mainstay anytime soon. Fewer than one in four expect stablecoins to become even somewhat important within the next three years, and just 10% said the same of cryptocurrencies.
Businesses’ expectations of the importance of these digital assets generally reflect their existing adoption. Firms in services and those with higher revenues and lower levels of uncertainty anticipate the highest levels of importance. Even among these subsections, though, fewer than one in three expect either currency to become at least somewhat important. That said, a significant share—nearly one in four—of low uncertainty firms expect stablecoins to become very or extremely important. One takeaway is that digital assets can become relevant only when operating conditions are controlled enough to support experimentation and integration.
Where CFOs do see a path toward making digital assets more important involves greater institutional support and regulatory certainty. Nearly half (45%) say integrations with major banks would make stablecoins a more meaningful part of banking flows. Four in 10 say the same of regulatory clarity and compliance certainty. The issue is thus about trust, not efficiency or cost. Only 25% say faster settlement and improved liquidity would help, and just 22% say the same of lower costs. Stablecoin’s scalability depends first on controllable rails and clear rules.
On the other hand, CFOs are more doubtful about crypto’s ability to gain ground, even with more institutional support and regulatory clarity. Nearly two in three (63%) say nothing would positively influence their company’s approach to crypto. By contrast, just 45% said the same of stablecoins. Overall, finance executives are signaling a clear preference for regulated stability.
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Methodology
“Waiting for Certainty: Why Most CFOs Are Holding Back on Crypto and Stablecoins,” the latest installment of the 2026 Certainty Project, is based on a survey of 60 CFOs conducted from Jan. 13, 2026, to Jan. 21, 2026. The survey polled executives at U.S.-based companies with annual revenues between $100 million and $1 billion. The report examines the factors that aid and hinder middle market firms’ adoption of cryptocurrencies and stablecoins.
1. PYMNTS Intelligence defines “uncertainty” as corporate executives’ assessments of unpredictability or lack of assurance in critical business areas, including accounts payable and receivable, cash and liquidity positions, macroeconomic conditions, consumer and customer demand, risk management, compliance and regulatory issues, supply chains, payments capabilities, exchange rates and competitive positions.↩
