2026 Mid-Year Crypto Payment Statistics: Monero Still Leads, Bitcoin Rails Grow, Stablecoins Broaden

Six months ago we published our 2025 crypto payment statistics review. Since then we've kept publishing monthly payment stats, so we can now compare the first half of 2026.

Tl;dr: Monero is still #1, Bitcoin plus Lightning is now clearly #2, Nano is still used far more than most would expect, stablecoins are growing, BTCPay Server is still great, and the lesson is still SPEDN not HODL.

Monero Still Leads

Monero stayed first every month in the first half of 2026, averaging 35.84% of crypto deposit volume.

It was above 40% in January, April, and June. April was especially strong: XMR reached 41.74%, larger than the next two payment methods combined.

So the biggest 2025 lesson still holds: privacy payments are important.

Bitcoin + Lightning Is The Big Mover

The biggest change is Bitcoin's position when we count on-chain BTC and Lightning together.

BTC + Lightning averaged 22.19% over the first half of 2026, making it the second-largest payment rail overall. March reached 27.20%, and May reached 26.99%.

Bitcoin is still mostly used for larger payments, while Lightning has become a consistent smaller-payment rail.

We said last time that Bitcoin was "actually used" more than expected. It's even more true now, and the same holds for LN.

Nano Still Punches Above Its Weight

Nano averaged 16.88%, making it #2 as a single asset, narrowly ahead of on-chain Bitcoin at 16.70%.

Nano's best month was February at 26.29%, almost catching Monero. It did cool later, down to 9.51% in June, but that still leaves it far ahead of many coins with much larger market caps.

Our view has not changed: Nano is still a developer's and merchant's dream. Instant transactions, zero fees, simple UX, and a community that likes actually using the coin.

Stablecoins Are Growing

USDT + USDC averaged 8.74% over the first half of the year and reached 11.78% in June. In June, stablecoins were larger than Nano and larger than every single asset except XMR and BTC.

USDC was already growing at the end of 2025, especially on Base. In 2026, usage broadened: USDT (a lot on Tron), and x402 payments means stablecoins grabbed a larger part of the pie.

The Rest

Litecoin remains the quiet performer, averaging 3.53%, or 3.59% including LTC-MWEB. It still gets less community noise than almost any other coin we support, but it keeps being used.

Zcash averaged 2.46%, helped by a strong January at 5.23%. ETH, TON, SOL, BCH, and DASH all had meaningful usage, though none challenged the top group.

Some coins still disappoint. We had hoped to see more from Kaspa and EGLD, but both remain tiny in our payment stats. No diss intended; we would love to see more usage but they're just not used.

What Changed On Our Side

The first half of 2026 was also a busy period for payment infrastructure.

We added or improved accountless x402 payments, Nano exact x402, Base USDC exact x402, Lightning L402/x402, Solana SOL/USDC/USDT deposits, THORChain paths like XRP/AVAX/ATOM, clearer deposit progress, and better checkout flows.

We think our crypto payment UX is pretty great now, and we're quite proud that we're inhousing and able to improve more and more of them.

Recommendations For Merchants

Use BTCPay Server.

We still love it. It supports many of our most-used coins, including Monero, Nano, Bitcoin, Litecoin, Zcash, and Doge. It is self-custodial, open source, and much easier than hand-rolling integrations for every coin community.

If you serve developers or agents, also look at x402/L402-style accountless payments. For API access, instant pay-and-use flows are starting to make a lot of sense.

Recommendations For Crypto Enthusiasts

SPEDN.

If you want your favorite cryptocurrency to gain merchant adoption, make it easy to accept and actually use it. Integrate with BTCPay Server, maintain the boring infrastructure (also, especially, after chain updates), and spend the coin where it is accepted.

Thanks to everyone who paid with crypto in the first half of 2026.

Onwards.