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Visa Survey Finds Stablecoin Adoption Intent Could Reach 56% With Bank-Level Protections
Fraud safeguards, deposit insurance and trusted financial providers emerge as key factors in U.S. consumer willingness
TL;DR
- Visa said U.S. stablecoin adoption intent could rise from 36% to 56% under a hypothetical scenario offering bank-level fraud protection and deposit insurance.
- Morning Consult surveyed 2,192 U.S. adults from February 24 through March 2, 2026, with more than half saying they had never heard of stablecoins.
- The findings arrived as U.S. and European regulators continued developing rules around stablecoin issuers, reserves and consumer protections.
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Visa said on September 23, 2026, that U.S. consumer willingness to use stablecoins could rise from 36% to 56% if the products offered bank-level fraud protection and deposit insurance, according to its “Money Travels 2026” findings. The scenario was hypothetical and measured stated adoption intent rather than current stablecoin use or guaranteed future adoption.
Morning Consult conducted the survey among 2,192 U.S. adults between February 24 and March 2, 2026. Respondents were given definitions of stablecoins and other relevant financial terms before answering questions, an important feature of the study because 56% said they had never heard of stablecoins before the survey.
Some respondents who had previously heard of stablecoins also incorrectly believed their value fluctuates in the same way as bitcoin. The survey separately found that consumers discussing cross-border payments were looking for faster and cheaper ways to send money abroad.
Trusted providers and stronger protections lift stated adoption
Visa found that the provider offering a stablecoin also influenced consumer willingness. Adoption intent increased when stablecoins were made available through an existing financial provider, then rose further when additional protections were introduced.
The move from the baseline to the strongest-protection scenario represented a 20-percentage-point increase, or roughly a 56% relative increase in stated willingness. Visa said, “Nearly two-thirds (64%) [of respondents] say trust depends more on who offers a payment method than on the tech itself.”
Traditional commercial banks were the most trusted providers of digital-currency services, with 61% of respondents expressing trust, while global payment networks followed at 60%.
Stablecoins generally do not provide the same fraud protections associated with conventional bank products, and stablecoin balances are not covered by Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation deposit insurance. Visa’s highest adoption figure therefore reflected protections presented to respondents as a hypothetical scenario, not protections currently attached to U.S. stablecoin holdings.
Stablecoin infrastructure expands as regulation develops
The findings were released as companies prepared for implementation of the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins Act, or GENIUS Act, which establishes a federal stablecoin framework. Key U.S. financial agencies still had to finalize implementing rules, with the law expected to become effective in January 2027.
The GENIUS framework is not expected to provide stablecoins with FDIC deposit insurance or the explicit bank-style fraud protection used in Visa’s hypothetical survey scenario. The legislation instead contains guidelines that include provisions addressing illicit activity.
Stablecoin infrastructure has meanwhile continued to expand. Total U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin supply was above $295 billion as of the September 23 reporting date. Tether’s USDT accounted for about $183.4 billion, while Circle’s USDC accounted for nearly $76 billion. A separate figure put their combined market capitalization at about $260 billion.
Visa said earlier in September that its stablecoin settlement activity had exceeded a $20 billion annualized run rate, more than 15 times the level recorded a year earlier. The company also reported more than 160 stablecoin-linked card programs operating globally.
European regulators were addressing a separate reserve-policy issue at the same time. On September 22, 2026, the European System of Central Banks called for changes to requirements governing how much stablecoin issuers must keep as bank deposits.
Existing rules required issuers to hold at least 30% of reserves as bank deposits, rising to 60% for “significant” tokens. The European System of Central Banks instead supported liquidity thresholds for reserve assets, citing the risk of users withdrawing deposits rapidly.
Those requirements sit within the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets framework, which began enforcing stablecoin rules in June 2024. Payments infrastructure company Decta said the market capitalization of MiCA-compliant euro stablecoins more than doubled from 2025 to 2026 ahead of the end of the framework’s transition period, while dollar-pegged stablecoins remained dominant.
This article has been refined and enhanced by ChatGPT.
