Which Stablecoins Should Your Business Accept?

“Just add stablecoins to checkout.” Easy to say. Then you open the list and there are dozens of them, spread across a handful of blockchains, each with its own issuer, its own reserves, and its own regulatory baggage.

So the real question isn’t whether to accept stablecoins. Most businesses have already decided that part. The question is which ones, on which networks, and what you’re quietly signing up for when you pick.

Let’s walk through it the way you’d actually think about it.

First, why stablecoins keep winning the checkout conversation

Stablecoins are the part of crypto that behaves. A dollar-pegged token is worth roughly a dollar today, tomorrow, and the day after. That removes the one objection that used to end every crypto payment discussion, which is volatility.

The market reflects this. Stablecoins now sit at roughly $300 billion in total supply, according to trackers like DefiLlama. Two names dominate almost everything: Tether (USDT) holds close to 60% of the market, and Circle’s USDC around 24%. Together they are the overwhelming majority of stablecoin value in circulation.

That dominance matters for you, because accepting a stablecoin nobody holds is pointless. You want the ones your customers actually have in their wallets.

The two that matter for most businesses: USDC and EURC

If you strip the decision down to what a business can realistically accept and settle in Europe today, you land on two: USDC and EURC.

Both are issued by Circle. USDC is pegged to the US dollar, EURC to the euro. Both are what regulators call e-money tokens under MiCA, which is the part that makes them usable inside the EU without a footnote.

Here at CoinGate, these are the stablecoins we support for merchant acceptance. USDC works across a wide set of networks, including Ethereum, Solana, Polygon, Base, Arbitrum, Optimism, and BNB Smart Chain. EURC runs on Ethereum. You can see the full breakdown on our supported currencies page.

EURC is worth a closer look if you invoice in euros. A euro-native stablecoin means no hidden dollar conversion sitting between your customer’s payment and your accounting. You bill in euros, you get paid in euros, and the number on the invoice matches the number that lands.

The USDT question, answered honestly

Here’s where people get confused. USDT is the biggest stablecoin in the world. So why isn’t it the obvious pick?

Because size and compliance are different things.

MiCA requires stablecoin issuers to be authorized as e-money institutions inside the EU, with reserves held under strict rules. Circle obtained that authorization in France in 2024, which is what makes USDC and EURC compliant here. Tether, so far, has not pursued the same authorization for USDT.

The consequence was visible fast. EU-facing exchanges started removing USDT from their offerings to stay compliant, with Coinbase delisting it in Europe in late 2024 and others following into 2025.

That’s why USDT isn’t on our merchant acceptance list. It’s not a judgment on Tether’s product. It’s about what a licensed, EU-regulated provider is allowed to handle. If you want the longer comparison, we broke it down in What is the Difference Between USDC and USDT?

So the honest answer to “should I accept USDT?” for an EU business right now: through a MiCA-licensed processor, that option isn’t on the table. And that’s a feature, not a gap.

Then choose the network, not just the coin

Picking USDC is only half the decision. The same token behaves very differently depending on which blockchain it travels on.

The difference is mostly cost and speed:

• Ethereum mainnet is the most established, but transfers can cost real money when the network is busy.
• Layer 2 networks like Base, Arbitrum, and Optimism carry the same USDC for a fraction of a cent.
• Solana and Polygon are fast and cheap, often settling in seconds for tiny fees.

For a business, the practical move is to accept USDC across several of these networks and let the customer pay from wherever they already hold funds. A customer with USDC on Base shouldn’t be forced onto Ethereum mainnet and a five-dollar fee just to pay you. We cover why that flexibility matters in How to Accept USDC Payments as a Business.

The risk nobody likes to mention: depeg

A stablecoin is only stable until it isn’t. Choosing which ones to accept means understanding how they can break, because they have.

Two examples tell the whole story.

In March 2023, USDC briefly fell to about $0.87 after Circle disclosed that part of its reserves were stuck at the collapsing Silicon Valley Bank. It was frightening for a weekend. Then US regulators backstopped the bank’s deposits, and USDC returned to its dollar peg within days. A fully-reserved coin, a real scare, a full recovery.

Compare that to TerraUSD in May 2022. UST wasn’t backed by cash and treasuries. It relied on an algorithm and a sister token to hold its peg. When confidence cracked, the whole thing entered a death spiral and collapsed to near zero, wiping out tens of billions in days. It never came back.

The lesson isn’t “stablecoins are dangerous.” The lesson is that how a stablecoin is backed decides how it behaves under stress. Fully-reserved, audited, regulated coins like USDC and EURC are a different risk category than algorithmic experiments. When you choose what to accept, you’re really choosing whose reserves you trust.

A short checklist for choosing

When someone asks me what to accept, I point them at four questions:

• Is it fully reserved and regulated? For EU acceptance, that points to USDC and EURC.
• Do my customers actually hold it? Accept what’s in circulation, not what’s obscure.
• Which currency do I account in? Euro business, look hard at EURC. Dollar exposure, USDC.
• Which networks keep fees low for my customers? Offer a few, not just the expensive one.

Answer those and the decision mostly makes itself.

So, which ones should you accept?

Start with USDC and EURC. They’re regulated, fully reserved, widely held, and they cover both dollar and euro exposure. Offer them across a few low-fee networks so paying you is never the expensive part of a customer’s day. And treat depeg risk as a reason to prefer transparent, backed coins, not a reason to avoid stablecoins altogether.

The technology stopped being the hard part a while ago. The choice is now about trust and compliance, which is exactly where a licensed provider earns its keep.

Thinking it’s time to add stablecoins to your checkout? Start with us.

Frequently asked questions

Should my business accept USDT?

For a business operating in the EU through a licensed payment processor, USDT acceptance isn’t currently available, because Tether has not obtained MiCA e-money authorization. Compliant setups route around it using USDC and EURC instead.

What is the difference between USDC and EURC?

Both are issued by Circle and both are MiCA-compliant e-money tokens. USDC is pegged to the US dollar and EURC to the euro. If you invoice in euros, EURC removes the currency conversion between payment and settlement.

Are stablecoins safe to accept?

Fully-reserved, regulated stablecoins carry far less risk than algorithmic ones, which have failed badly in the past. No stablecoin is risk-free, but choosing regulated coins with transparent reserves puts you in the safest category available.

Which network is best for accepting stablecoins?

There’s no single best network. Ethereum is the most established, while Layer 2 networks and Solana offer much lower fees. Accepting a stablecoin across several networks lets customers pay from wherever they already hold funds.

Does CoinGate charge extra for accepting stablecoins?

Stablecoin acceptance follows the same pricing as other supported cryptocurrencies. You can review the details on our pricing page.