Crypto at CoinGate in H1 2026: Stablecoins Move to the Front

The first half of 2026 was a story of consistency rather than surprise. Order volume grew 21.4% year over year and held steady against the second half of 2025. Businesses used crypto payments as part of normal operations, with fewer one-off spikes and more repeat activity.

The clearest change was in how customers pay. USDC moved to the front and finished the half as the most-used payment asset, overtaking BTC, which held that position a year earlier. Its share rose across three consecutive halves, from 9.3% to 16.4% to 22.1%, the kind of steady climb that points to durable adoption rather than a passing trend.

The practical message is that a small set of assets now covers most demand, stable-value settlement is easy to arrange, and payouts can run automatically. The sections below explain each trend and the steps that follow from it.

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Key takeaways from the report

• CoinGate processed 782,403 paid crypto orders in H1 2026, about one every 20 seconds. Volume rose 21.4% from H1 2025 and held level with H2 2025.
• USDC became the most-used payment asset at 22.1%, overtaking BTC at 21.0%. Stablecoin demand has consolidated around USDC, which now makes up nearly all of the roughly 22% stablecoin share, so enabling it well is a checkout priority.
• Merchants settled 75.4% of orders to fiat. The share settled in crypto has fallen for three halves in a row.
• Payouts are now highly automated. 93.2% ran through the API, up from 83.3% a year earlier.
• Bitcoin remained the most-used network, and the Lightning Network handled 9.6% of BTC payments.
• Europe led by region at 40.5% of geolocated orders. The United States remained the single largest market.

A steady, year-round channel

Volume held firm through the first six months. CoinGate processed 782,403 paid orders, up 21.4% from the same period a year earlier and roughly level with the 779,988 orders in H2 2025.

Monthly volume stayed within a narrow band, between about 120,000 and 136,000 orders. There was no single spike. That pattern reflects recurring, operational use rather than one-off campaigns or seasonal peaks.

The average order value was around 95 EUR, down from about 115 EUR in H1 2025 and 99 EUR in H2 2025. Order count rose while the average basket shrank, which points to broader and more frequent use. Crypto payments still concentrate in higher-value categories such as software, digital services, and cross-border business payments, where customers are often global and value settlement that clears quickly without card or bank-transfer friction.

A pattern like this rewards treating crypto as a standing checkout option rather than a seasonal campaign. Because growth now comes from more frequent payments rather than larger ones, small gains in checkout speed and reliability add up across the year, and subscription or repeat-purchase models benefit most from a flow that is always available.

USDC moves to the front

The biggest change in H1 2026 was the order of preferred assets. USDC finished the half as the most-used payment asset at 22.1%, just ahead of BTC at 21.0%. A year earlier BTC was the most-used asset, so the top of the table changed hands over the period. LTC held third at 18.0%, followed by TRX at 16.5% and ETH at 11.9%.

USDC now settles most stablecoin payments, and as stablecoin use matured through the year it moved past BTC at the top. Its share rose across three consecutive halves, from 9.3% in H1 2025 to 16.4% in H2 2025 to 22.1% in H1 2026, more than doubling over the year.

Over the same period LTC climbed from 13.6% to 18.0% and TRX from 8.6% to 16.5%, while BTC held steady near 21%. Demand is concentrating in a small set of assets with deep liquidity, low fees, and predictable settlement.

Stablecoins as a group now represent about 22% of on-chain payments, and USDC accounts for nearly all of that volume. A stable unit of account at checkout is easier to price against and easier to reconcile after the sale. To meet the growing demand for stable-value payments, we added EURC, a euro-denominated compliant stablecoin, alongside USDC.

Most demand is still met by a short list of assets led by USDC, with BTC, LTC, TRX, and ETH, while EURC gives euro-based customers a matching stable option, so a focused checkout tends to serve buyers better than a long tail of coins.

Settlement shifts toward fiat

How merchants receive funds is one of the clearest signals of how they use crypto. In H1 2026, merchants settled 75.4% of orders to fiat and 24.6% in crypto.

The share settled in crypto has fallen for three halves in a row, from 39.3% in H1 2025 to 33.4% in H2 2025 to 24.6% now. This is a steady trend rather than a seasonal effect. More businesses convert to euro at the point of settlement to keep cash flow predictable and reporting simple.

Among settlement currencies, EUR led by a wide margin at 66.2%. USDC was the most-used crypto settlement option at 13.8%, close to its 14.0% share in H2 2025 and up from 10.4% a year earlier. When businesses do hold value in crypto, they increasingly hold it in USDC.

The choice here is a treasury decision. Settling to EUR keeps cash flow predictable and books clean, while holding a USDC balance keeps value in crypto without the price swings of other assets. Both can be set in a CoinGate account and changed as needs shift, and structured exports keep month-end reconciliation straightforward for the finance team.

Payouts run on the API

Payouts are where automation is most visible. CoinGate completed 8,155 payouts in H1 2026, up from 3,887 in H2 2025 and 957 a year earlier. Payouts launched at the start of 2025, so that first figure captures an early ramp, and the climb since then shows the feature becoming a standard workflow. USDC accounted for 88.1% of payouts, the clear standard for outbound payments, with BTC, ETH, LTC, and TRX making up most of the rest.

Automation is now the norm. 93.2% of payouts ran through the API, up from 87.7% in H2 2025 and 83.3% a year earlier. Merchants are building payouts into their own systems rather than sending them by hand, and the volume growth shows this becoming a core workflow.

When merchants pay out, the EUR to USDC path accounts for about 86% of conversions. With FX payouts, CoinGate performs this conversion automatically at the moment of sending, so a merchant can hold working capital in euro and still pay out in USDC without converting funds or pre-holding crypto. Running payouts through the API keeps the whole process inside your own backend and limits exposure to price moves. Scheduled payroll, supplier payments, and marketplace disbursements fit this model well.

Networks that lower cost

Asset choices were mirrored at the network level. Bitcoin remained the most-used network, including the Lightning Network, at 152,254 orders. Ethereum, Litecoin, and TRON followed.

The Lightning Network handled 9.6% of BTC payments, with the rest settled on-chain. Lightning continues to serve fast, low-value BTC payments well.

Layer-2 networks continued their steady climb. Base, Arbitrum, and Polygon together carried more than 54,000 orders, almost all of it in USDC. The Ethereum network also carried far more volume than ETH payments alone, since it settles most stablecoin activity.

High network fees are a common reason customers abandon a crypto payment, so enabling Layer-2 networks and the Lightning Network helps protect conversion, especially on smaller orders.

Where your customers pay from

Crypto payment activity stayed globally distributed. The United States remained the single largest market by a wide margin, with 174,969 orders. Germany, the Netherlands, Nigeria, and the United Kingdom rounded out the top five.

The Netherlands rose to third over the year, and Singapore entered the top 15. The continued presence of Nigeria in the top five reflects the value of crypto in markets where access to traditional payment rails is limited.

By region, Europe led with 40.5% of geolocated orders, followed by North America at 26.2% and Asia at 17.3%.

For businesses that sell across borders, this is where crypto earns its place. It reaches customers in markets where card acceptance is weak and settles without the delays of international transfers. Europe and the United States are the largest crypto audiences, so localized checkout and clear currency options in those regions tend to have the most impact.

Wallet-based checkout

More customers paid directly from self-custodial wallets. WalletConnect orders reached 27,653 in H1 2026, up from 23,327 in H2 2025 and 4,609 in the same period a year earlier. WalletConnect soft-launched at the start of 2025, so the low H1 2025 figure reflects its first months, and adoption has climbed steadily since. This points to a maturing checkout that meets customers where they already hold funds.

Turning on wallet-based checkout lets customers pay directly from the wallets they already use. Fewer steps at payment mean fewer drop-offs, and customers no longer need to copy addresses by hand, which is a small change that tends to help conversion.

Your H1 2026 action checklist

The trends above point to a short list of practical moves. Each one is available in your CoinGate account or API.

• Keep crypto enabled as a standing checkout option, and prioritize a fast, reliable payment flow over one-off promotions.
• Enable and highlight USDC, offer the core assets customers use (USDC, BTC, LTC, TRX, and ETH), and add EURC for euro-based stablecoin payments.
• Choose your settlement mix. Settle to EUR for predictable cash flow, or hold USDC to keep a stable crypto balance.
• Automate payouts through the API, and use FX payouts so CoinGate converts EUR to USDC automatically at the moment you send.
• Turn on Layer-2 networks and the Lightning Network to lower fees and speed up confirmation for your customers.
• Make sure the WalletConnect option is available so customers can pay from their own wallets in fewer steps.
• If you sell internationally, use crypto to reach markets where card access is limited, and export structured records for your finance team.

Closing

The first half of 2026 shows crypto working as everyday financial infrastructure. Businesses chose a small set of reliable assets, settled in the currency that suited their treasury, and automated their payouts. The headline numbers moved less than in past years, while the day-to-day usage matured.

CoinGate is built for that kind of operation. You can accept the assets your customers use, settle in fiat or crypto, automate payouts, and export clean records for accounting and reconciliation. We operate under a MiCA licence from the Bank of Lithuania, so you can treat crypto as a working financial tool with regulatory clarity across the European Union.

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