Survey: 50% of U.S. Consumers Open to Paying With Stablecoins

Stablecoins may be inching closer to the mainstream. Half of adults surveyed by The Motley Fool say they would consider using stablecoins for everyday purchases. That jumps to 71% among Gen Z and 60% among millennials but plummets among older generations, according to The Motley Fool’s 2025 Stablecoin Usage and Trends survey.

Knowledge and actual usage of stablecoins are uneven, with only roughly 1 in 5 saying they fully understand how stablecoins work. And as with usage, understanding drops quickly with older generations. The generational divide over openness to stablecoins could be a barrier for widespread adoption.

Whether you’re curious about how stablecoins work or already looking to integrate them into your own investing and purchases, The Motley Fool’s educational guide on stablecoins and Motley Fool Money’s expert picks for the best cryptocurrency exchanges can help you get started.

71% of Gen Z, 60% of millennials would use stablecoins for typical shopping

71% of Gen Z and 60% of millennials surveyed by The Motley Fool say they would use stablecoins for typical shopping. Meanwhile, just 31% of Gen X and 18% of baby boomers said they would consider a stablecoin for online or in-store purchases. Men (60%) are more open than women (41%) to using stablecoins for regular shopping.

Those trends – younger generations and men being more open to cryptocurrency than older generations and women – are seen across the cryptocurrency sector.

27% of Americans say they’ve already used stablecoins for purchasing or investing

Roughly 1 in 4 respondents to The Motley Fool’s Stablecoin Usage and Trends survey say they’ve used stablecoins for purchases or investing. While the exact percentages may vary from survey to survey, the directional trend is clear: Younger generations and men are significantly more likely to report stablecoin use.

Among Gen Z, 42% of respondents said they had used a stablecoin, followed by 34% of millennials compared to 14% of Gen X and just 2% of baby boomers.

Men (34%) are more likely to have used a stablecoin than women (21%), consistent with broader crypto trends.

Improved privacy, speed, and lower fees are top factors for new stablecoin use

Convincing consumers and merchants to move beyond familiar payment methods like credit and debit cards and try something brand new will take some work. In particular, shoppers and businesses would consider using stablecoins if they offered better privacy, transaction speed, and lower fees than existing payment methods.

Stablecoin proponents claim that crypto transactions will settle faster and can be done without debit and credit card processing fees that hit merchants with every swipe. Privacy is another question, however, given that transactions on the blockchain are publicly accessible and can be traced to specific individuals if their wallet ID is known.

One red flag is that nothing could be done right now to convince 41% of Gen X and 57% of baby boomers to consider using stablecoins for purchases.

Price volatility, acceptance at store, and lack of regulation are the top concerns with stablecoins

Price volatility (38%), lack of widespread acceptance (31%), and insufficient regulation (29%) top the list of concerns about using stablecoins for payments among survey respondents – and each has some merit.

While stablecoins are meant to maintain a 1:1 peg to the U.S. dollar, there have been instances of “depegging.” The most infamous case was Terra’s UST in 2022, which rapidly collapsed despite being labeled as stable. Concerns about reserves of Tether’s USDT (USDT +0.01%), one of the largest stablecoins, are well documented and persistent. If a stablecoin were to lose its 1:1 peg with the dollar, there would be significant disruption to the finances of both individuals and businesses.

56% of Americans are familiar with stablecoins, but understanding lags among Gen X and baby boomers

Understanding how stablecoins work is important for adoption, since most consumers and merchants would likely be uncomfortable making transactions and not understanding how to access their money, fill their crypto wallets, or exchange actual dollars for crypto and vice versa.

It’s promising for stablecoins that 56% of respondents to The Motley Fool’s 2025 Stablecoin Usage and Trends survey say they’re either very familiar or somewhat familiar with stablecoins, while 22% say they’ve heard of them but don’t understand them, and 23% say they’re not familiar with stablecoins at all.

Understanding plummets among older generations. While 27% of both Gen Z and millennials say they’re very familiar with stablecoins and more than 40% of those generations say they’re somewhat familiar, no baby boomer surveyed said they’re very familiar with stablecoins, and just 21% said they’re somewhat familiar. Nearly 41% of baby boomers said they’re not familiar at all with them.

What it would take for consumers to adopt stablecoins

The data is clear: Younger consumers are leading the stablecoin wave, but older generations and, to a lesser extent, women remain hesitant. Whether their skepticism prevents stablecoins from scaling to widespread adoption remains to be seen but is a concern given how much spending power is concentrated among Gen X and baby boomers.

Privacy, speed, and fees are key motivators for stablecoin adoption, while volatility and lack of understanding are roadblocks. Given that, consumer education might be just as important as regulation in driving stablecoin adoption.