TL;DR
- Euro-area crypto payments remain marginal, with only 0.2% of online merchants accepting crypto and physical-point acceptance staying below 1% across the euro area today.
- Mobile payment acceptance jumped to 68% from 36% in 2024, while cash remained dominant at 92% and cards reached 88%.
- Consumer preference drives merchant decisions, but the ECB survey leaves uncertainty over whether crypto payments converted into traditional currency are fully captured in reported acceptance figures.
Crypto payments remain almost invisible among euro-area merchants even as mobile options rapidly expand, according to the European Central Bank’s latest company survey. Only 0.2% of businesses selling goods and services online said they accept crypto assets, while acceptance at physical points of sale stayed below 1%. The contrast is striking because digital payments are advancing quickly, yet cryptocurrencies barely register in everyday commerce across the region today. The survey covered 8,205 businesses across all 21 euro-area countries, spanning retail, hospitality, entertainment and other consumer-facing sectors during interviews conducted from February 23 to April 10.
Mobile payments, by comparison, are moving rapidly into the mainstream. Acceptance at physical locations jumped to 68% in 2026 from 36% in 2024, with instant payments and digital wallets such as Apple Pay and Google Pay among the most common options across stores and service businesses. Merchants appear willing to embrace digital convenience, but not necessarily crypto. Cash still leads overall acceptance at 92%, up from 90%, while physical cards increased slightly to 88% from 87%. Crypto assets and stablecoins showed virtually no momentum, remaining below 1% acceptance in both 2024 and 2026.
Consumer demand still dictates what merchants accept
The ECB found that customer preference remains the biggest factor when businesses decide which payment methods to support, cited by 26% of respondents. Security followed at 22%, while ease of handling accounted for 15%. That helps explain why crypto adoption may be stuck in a loop: limited consumer demand gives merchants little incentive to add it in practice today. The survey also showed that businesses rejecting cash most often cited weak customer demand, at 36%, followed by difficulties depositing or withdrawing cash at 35% and security concerns at 29%, underscoring how merchant choices remain demand-driven.
The survey asked whether companies accept crypto assets or stablecoins, using Bitcoin, Ether and Tether’s USDT as examples. However, it did not clarify whether merchants should count transactions where customers pay in crypto but the business receives settlement in traditional currency. That ambiguity leaves open the possibility that some crypto-enabled payments are not captured in the headline acceptance figures. The ECB declined to speculate on whether converted payments may therefore be underreported and said it does not set payment regulation, referring questions about legal acceptance rules to European and national lawmakers as digital payment policy continues evolving.
