Visa Survey Said Nearly Half of Asia Pacific Consumers Open to Stablecoins Within Five Years

A new Visa survey of 14,250 people suggests stablecoin interest is climbing across the Asia Pacific region. About 46% of those interviewed said they are likely to use stablecoins within five years, compared with just 16% who used them in the past year. Roughly 49% also believe stablecoins could become a common way to send money across borders in that time. Visa says nearly half of the region’s 2.5 billion consumers are open to adopting them for everyday spending, travel and cross-border transfers.

Understanding Gap and Fraud Concerns

Interest is running well ahead of knowledge. Only 6% of respondents showed an accurate grasp of how stablecoins work, and about 49% of those aware of them thought they were only for buying and selling other cryptocurrencies. Fraud and scams were the top worry among people who knew about stablecoins but had not tried them.

Stablecoin Payments Race in Asia

Banks, card networks and stablecoin providers are competing for a market with around 2.5 billion middle class consumers, according to the Asia Business Council. Visa has widened its stablecoin settlement network and wants to support more tokens and blockchains. Its partner Reap is preparing local-currency stablecoins for round-the-clock foreign-exchange settlement, including possible Hong Kong dollar, won and yen tokens.

Nischint Sanghavi, Visa’s head of digital currencies for Asia Pacific, said consumers are starting to see how stablecoins fit into how they already spend and move money. He said the challenge now is turning that interest into trusted, familiar payment experiences that work at scale.