Crypto at CoinGate in 2025: Payments Evolve Into Operations

2025 didn’t look dramatic for crypto payments. There were fewer headlines and fewer headline-grabbing spikes. But across more than 1.42 million transactions, a new pattern emerged. This year was no longer just about accepting funds at checkout, but about how businesses hold, move, and use crypto operationally, including settlements, treasury management and automated payouts.

Key takeaways:

• 1.42M crypto payments were processed in 2025, bringing total CoinGate volume to over 7 million payments since launch.
• Merchants increasingly use crypto as operational capital, with 25.2% of all payments settled in stablecoins, up from 16.7% last year.
• USDC emerged as the dominant operational asset following regulatory changes affecting USDT compliance, with USDC orders up 1264% YoY and 83.4% of all payouts executed in USDC.
• Payout automation is now the norm, with 85% of merchants executing payouts via API.
• Bitcoin reclaimed the #1 spot with a 22.1% payment share, reinforcing its role as a reliable asset for payments.
• Stablecoins still accounted for 29.8% of all payments, but their composition shifted decisively toward USDC as the sole EU-compliant and widely adopted stablecoin.
• Litecoin retained its position as the third most-used crypto, reaching a 14.4% payment share.

Executive Summary

BTC reclaimed its position as the most-used cryptocurrency, overtaking USDT, with a 22.1% share of all payments. At the same time, stablecoins began rebalancing. USDC emerged as the dominant stablecoin over USDT, with its payment share increasing from 2.5% in 2024 to 44.2% of all stablecoin payments in 2025, alongside a 13X increase in processed order volume year-over-year.

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In 2025, CoinGate processed 1.42 million crypto payments (or one order every 22 seconds), adding to more than seven million payments processed on the platform to date. Transaction volumes adjusted during the year as USDT was phased out per MiCA requirements, but underlying usage shifted toward more operational and treasury-driven use cases. The data in this report suggests that crypto payments became more operationally embedded, particularly in settlements, payouts, and treasury workflows.