May 2026 Crypto Payment Statistics: Bitcoin Rails Gain on Monero
This report is part of our monthly crypto merchant data series. See all NanoGPT crypto payment statistics.
May shifted the top of the table again. Monero stayed in first place, Bitcoin had a much stronger month, and Nano moved into third.
Monero Stays In First
Monero led May at 33.81%. That kept XMR in first place, though it came down from April's very strong 41.74%.
Bitcoin Moves Up
On-chain Bitcoin came in second at 19.71%. This is quite an increase from April's 13.04%. Lightning added another 7.28%, up from 5.25% in April.
Combined, BTC + LN reached 26.99%, making Bitcoin rails the clear second-largest category behind Monero.
Nano Comes In Third
Nano came in third at 11.78%, down from 15.16% in April.
It still held a strong position, but May was clearly a better month for Bitcoin than for Nano.
ETH And Stablecoins Were Meaningful
Ethereum had one of the stronger moves in May, rising from 2.34% to 5.57%.
Stablecoins also increased as a combined category. USDT reached 4.36% and USDC reached 3.53%, putting USDT + USDC at 7.90% combined.
The Middle Of The Table
Several coins formed the next group:
- Litecoin slipped from 4.24% to 3.51%.
- TON moved from 2.95% to 2.49%.
- SOL came in at 2.22%, slightly below April's 2.55%.
- ZEC recovered from 0.94% to 1.31%.
- BASE rose from 0.26% to 1.25%.
- BCH moved down from 1.88% to 1.06%.
- DASH reached 1.03%, slightly above April's 0.92%.
The Full Data
Here is the complete breakdown for all coins in May:
- XMR: 33.81%
- BTC: 19.71%
- XNO: 11.78%
- BTC-LN: 7.28%
- ETH: 5.57%
- USDT: 4.36%
- USDC: 3.53%
- LTC: 3.51%
- TON: 2.49%
- SOL: 2.22%
- ZEC: 1.31%
- BASE: 1.25%
- BCH: 1.06%
- DASH: 1.03%
- ZANO: 0.47%
- BNB: 0.17%
- TRX: 0.14%
- DOGE: 0.09%
- POLYGON: 0.08%
- LTC-MWEB: 0.06%
- ARBITRUM: 0.05%
- KAS: 0.02%
- XRP: 0.02%
- AVAX: 0.01%
- VERSE: 0.00%
Takeaways
- XMR stayed in first place at 33.81%.
- BTC + LN rose to 26.99% combined, making Bitcoin rails the clear second-largest category.
- XNO came in third at 11.78%.
- USDT + USDC totaled 7.90%, up from 6.64% in April.
- ETH had a strong month, rising to 5.57%.
That wraps May. The main story is that Monero still led, Bitcoin plus Lightning gained a lot of ground, Nano stayed important but lower, and the middle of the table broadened across ETH, stablecoins, Litecoin, TON, Solana, and several smaller chains.
