Payments and artificial intelligence emerged as the two pillars of crypto adoption in 2025, according to a report released by Reown in partnership with public opinion analytics company YouGov.
The study, which surveyed over 1,000 active crypto users across the United States and the United Kingdom, showed that artificial intelligence and payments were cited as key drivers of adoption by 37% of the respondents.
Crypto payments saw a significant year-over-year growth, with 34% of survey participants reporting active engagement. The report said this outpaces traditional decentralized finance (DeFi) use cases like farming and staking, though it still trails trading.
The report said that 27% of participants pointed to payments as the onchain experience that will become dominant in the next three to five years. This signaled confidence in crypto’s ability to support real-world utility.
Crypto payments and AI solve different layers of the same problem
Reown CEO Jess Houlgrave told Cointelegraph that payments and artificial intelligence are solving different layers of the same problem: how to make crypto useful, trusted and intuitive.
“They’re distinct but complementary,” Houlgrave told Cointelegraph. “Payments bring real-world demand. AI improves the experience. We don’t see one displacing the other.”
Houlgrave said AI helps improve user experience and developer productivity.
She told Cointelegraph that AI is improving personalization, fraud detection and support. On the other hand, it speeds up onboarding, auditing and automation for developers.
She said that adoption is growing because payments are finally becoming usable. Houlgrave said real-world use cases like remittances and gig payouts mean payments are “no longer just a crypto demo,” but are now “real-life infrastructure.”
In May, Mercuryo CEO Petr Kozyakov told Cointelegraph that more companies are settling employee compensation with crypto assets. He said the trend is expanding, and because of this, workers are looking for ways to spend their crypto directly.
Crypto trading remains “most enjoyed” onchain activity
Crypto trading remains the most enjoyed activity onchain, according to 36% of the respondents, and payments are now the second-most enjoyed onchain activity, with 10% of respondents. Still, 14% of participants said payments are the onchain activity they’re most excited about moving forward.
“Onchain payments are no longer an edge case,” said Houlgrave. “From real-world remittances to stablecoin rails powering embedded finance, we’re witnessing a shift.”
Houlgrave said the tools are finally catching up to the “use case that brought many to crypto in the first place.”
She said the asset was described as a peer-to-peer, electronic cash system in the original Bitcoin white paper. “Global, borderless, and trustless payments were the founding vision,” Houlgrave added.
Related: Fees, collateral give DeFi edge as TradFi eyes crypto loans: 1inch exec
Survey shows stablecoins pass SOL in ownership
Apart from payments and trading, the report also dived into crypto ownership. It was found that 63% of respondents owned Bitcoin (BTC), while 48% owned Ether (ETH).
The report also noted that stablecoin ownership has increased to 38%, putting stablecoins ahead of Solana (SOL), which is at 37%.
Reown said 51% of 18 to 34-year-olds hold stablecoins, though adoption among users above 45 is significantly lower.
“The need for embedded, multichain UX is becoming clear: Users want to transact from wherever they already hold assets, whether that’s a wallet or exchange,” Reown wrote.
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