At Stablecon USA 2026 in Washington, D.C., Pavel Kashuba, Strategic Leader at Coinspaid Solutions, delivered a main-stage presentation focused on the operational groundwork required to transform digital asset payments from an occasional option into a routine part of commerce. His session, titled “Four in Ten American Businesses Take Crypto. Most of Their Customers Never Notice,” argued that simply offering crypto at checkout is not enough; true adoption is measured by completed transactions and repeat customer behavior.
Recent data underscores the current state of adoption. A Harris Poll conducted for the National Cryptocurrency Association found that 39% of surveyed US merchants accept crypto at checkout, with crypto representing 26% of total sales for those merchants. Another NCA study indicated that 26.8 million Americans use crypto for shopping and payments, equivalent to 40% of US crypto holders. These figures, however, sit within a broader stablecoin economy that remains largely untapped for payments.
A McKinsey analysis with Artemis estimated annual stablecoin activity at up to $35 trillion, yet actual stablecoin payments ran at roughly $390 billion based on December 2025 activity. That leaves payment use at about 1% of total volume, a gap Kashuba attributes to the practical conditions surrounding each transaction rather than mere availability.
Four operational decisions determine real usage
Kashuba organized the challenge around four operational decisions: placement, currency and network coverage, settlement design, and custody. Placement determines whether customers see the crypto option at checkout. Currency and network coverage influence transaction cost and processing time. Settlement design governs when merchants receive funds and in what form. Custody establishes who controls the assets and carries responsibility for them. For banks, payment service providers, and acquirers, these are the design choices behind any crypto offering they extend to merchants.
The framework draws on Coinspaid Solutions' operating experience, with its infrastructure having processed more than €100 billion in volume and over 200 million transactions. At that scale, checkout visibility and network selection have measurable effects on payment completion, while settlement configuration shapes the merchant's exposure after each transaction.
Settlement and custody define the operating model
More than 70% of businesses settle crypto payments in fiat, according to figures presented by Kashuba. Configured for automatic conversion into US dollars or euros, this setup lets merchants receive familiar treasury assets without holding crypto. Settlement is provided by regulated entities or licensed banking partners, with availability varying by jurisdiction. Blockchain transfers operate outside the card chargeback mechanism, while refunds remain a separate merchant-controlled process.
Custody carries wider operational consequences. “The choice depends on how much control your business wants and how much infrastructure it can manage,” Kashuba said. This division of responsibility is central to the enterprise infrastructure model developed by Coinspaid Solutions. Financial institutions operate under their own regulatory framework and retain control over transaction signing, while Coinspaid deploys and maintains the underlying technology, allowing institutions to preserve their customer relationships and operating models.
A framework for agentic payments
Kashuba closed by applying the same framework to agentic payments, where AI systems complete purchases on behalf of users. Amazon's Buy for Me and Google's Universal Cart already enable such transactions, and the x402 protocol has recorded more than 100 million transactions on Base. Autonomous commerce will still depend on visible payment options, suitable network coverage, reliable settlement, and clearly assigned custody.
Kashuba presented the experience gained from live crypto payment infrastructure as a practical foundation for designing that emerging layer. His central message remained grounded in execution: payment infrastructure creates value when it converts market demand into reliable, repeatable usage. Coinspaid Solutions' scale gave that argument a practical foundation, connecting today's crypto payment realities with the infrastructure requirements of the next phase of digital commerce.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice.
