March 2026 Crypto Payment Statistics: Bitcoin Gains on Monero
This report is part of our monthly crypto merchant data series. See all NanoGPT crypto payment statistics.
March kept the same leader at the top, but the gaps shifted meaningfully underneath. Monero stayed #1, Bitcoin gained a lot of ground, and Nano fell back from its near-tie in February.
Monero Stays In First
Monero led March at 29.23% of crypto deposit volume, narrowly above February's 29.04%. It remained the largest single crypto payment method, as it has been for quite a while now!
Bitcoin Climbs While Nano Falls Back
On-chain Bitcoin reached 20.94%, up sharply from 17.06% in February. Lightning added 6.26%, up from 5.41%, putting BTC + LN at 27.21% combined.
At the same time, Nano dropped from 26.29% to 20.51%. It still held a strong #3 position, but March was clearly a weaker month for Nano than February.
Stablecoins Stay Relevant
USDT represented 4.68%, up from 1.56%, while USDC came in at 1.88%. Combined stablecoin usage stayed meaningful, though still well behind the top three rails.
Mid-Tier Coins Shift Around
Several mid-tier coins moved substantially:
- Litecoin slipped from 3.63% to 3.53%.
- ETH jumped from 0.48% to 2.82%, one of the clearest gains of the month.
- SOL rose from 0.59% to 2.53%.
- TON increased from 1.55% to 2.23%.
- ZEC dropped from 3.69% to 1.79%, making it one of March's sharper declines.
- BCH moved up to 1.58%, while DASH came in at 1.00%.
ZANO Joins The More Meaningful Tail
Below the 1% mark, ZANO reached 0.73%, up strongly from an almost nonexistent February share. It was still a small coin overall, but it grew enough to become noticeable in the March breakdown. The rest of the tail included DOGE, KAS, LTC-MWEB, BNB, and TRX.
The Full Data
Here is the complete breakdown for all coins in March (crypto-only, excluding Stripe/USD deposits):
- XMR: 29.23%
- BTC: 20.94%
- XNO: 20.51%
- BTC-LN: 6.26%
- USDT: 4.68%
- LTC: 3.53%
- ETH: 2.82%
- SOL: 2.53%
- TON: 2.23%
- USDC: 1.88%
- ZEC: 1.79%
- BCH: 1.58%
- DASH: 1.00%
- ZANO: 0.73%
- DOGE: 0.10%
- KAS: 0.07%
- LTC-MWEB: 0.05%
- BNB: 0.03%
- TRX: 0.02%
- DAI: 0.01%
Takeaways
- XMR stayed in first place and edged slightly higher month over month.
- BTC + LN kept gaining and reached 27.21% combined.
- XNO saw one of the biggest top-tier declines, falling from 26.29% to 20.51%.
- ETH, SOL, and TON all had strong March gains.
- ZEC and LTC both lost share, with ZEC seeing the sharper drop.
- ZANO grew strongly off a tiny February base.
That wraps March. The biggest story was not a change at #1, but a reshuffling beneath it: Bitcoin gained, Nano lost ground, several mid-tier coins strengthened, and ZEC cooled off noticeably.
