Visa survey finds most U.S. adults have never heard of stablecoins

A survey released Wednesday by Visa found 56% of U.S. adults have never heard of stablecoins.

Many who have heard of them presume the tokens change in value like bitcoin.

Banks win trust from 61% of respondents for digital currency

The findings are part of Money Travels 2026, Visa’s report on how technology is transforming remittances. The poll was conducted by Morning Consult for Visa among 2,192 U.S. adults from Feb. 24 to March 2.

The global sample covers 45,445 people in 20 markets.

Separately, when Visa added hypothetical bank-level fraud protection and deposit insurance, adoption intent increased from 36% to 56%. Stablecoins are not currently covered by deposit insurance such as the FDIC, Visa said in its methodology note.

64% of respondents said trust is more about who is offering a payment method than the technology. When the stablecoin comes through an existing financial provider, willingness increases from 36% to 45%.

Traditional commercial banks drew trust from 61% of respondents to provide digital currency services. Global payment networks drew 60%.

One in three respondents hit cross-border payment scams

Over a third of respondents, 36%, have encountered a scam related to sending money internationally. Fake messages, account impersonation, and fake investment schemes were at the top of the list.

About 24% got AI-written messages that seemed authentic. And 44% feared AI deepfakes posing as family members. About one in five senders trimmed their own spending to support family abroad.

“The future of the industry will be won by the providers that work hardest to earn that trust,” said Vira Platonova, Global Head of Visa Direct.

Visa has more than 160 stablecoin-linked card programs in place, almost three times the number it had a year ago, noted Cryptopolitan.

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