Survey Finds 72% of Philippine Shoppers Favor Stablecoin Checkout

A September survey found 72% of Philippine consumers were more likely to shop at merchants offering stablecoin checkout, while 42% cited fraud and security risks as a main barrier to everyday use.

Digital asset payments firm Lydian released the Digital Asset Appetite Index, and Sapio Research conducted the survey. It covered 7,500 consumers ages 18 to 65 in Sept. 2026, with 1,500 respondents in each of five markets: the Philippines, Argentina, Indonesia, Kenya and the United Arab Emirates. The study reported a national margin of error of 1.1 percentage points at a 95% confidence level.

Thirty-six percent of Philippine respondents reported a stablecoin transaction within the past 30 days, the highest share among the five markets. The 72% figure reflects stated likelihood of choosing a merchant, while the 36% figure reflects reported stablecoin use in the prior 30 days.

Fraud and security risks were the most frequently cited barrier to daily stablecoin purchases in the Philippines, with the highest share of concern among the markets surveyed. Another 37% pointed to limited merchant acceptance, while 26% cited uncertainty about transaction fees and hidden costs.

The responses also pointed to general payment costs. Forty-seven percent named high transaction charges as a primary payment pain point, and 40% cited money-transfer costs. Twenty-seven percent said they sent or received international payments at least once a month. These figures describe payment and transfer costs generally, rather than costs tied specifically to stablecoin purchases.

Digital transactions accounted for 64.7% of the Philippines’ total retail payment volume in 2025. A separate survey of Philippine businesses focused on cross-border stablecoin use; earlier TokenPost coverage of business stablecoin payments examined business respondents in five markets rather than consumers’ shopping preferences.

In May 2026, Maya, a digital banking and merchant payment provider, partnered with Lydian on a feature designed to let merchants accept dollar-pegged stablecoins with direct settlement in Philippine pesos. Nikolas Huth, Lydian’s head of growth, said, “The Philippines has a well-established digital payments ecosystem, and these findings suggest consumers are open to stablecoins becoming part of it. Trust is essential if stablecoins are to move beyond investment and remittances into everyday transactions.”