Key points
Visa’s Money Travels 2026 study found US stablecoin adoption intent rises from 36% to 56% when bank-level fraud protection and deposit insurance are added
Visa notes in its methodology that the scenario is hypothetical and that stablecoins carry no deposit insurance
The FDIC said in March that payment stablecoins under the GENIUS Act are not eligible for insurance, and opened rulemaking in April
Trust attaches to the provider rather than the technology, with 64% saying who offers a payment method matters more than what it runs on
Payments giant Visa has identified precisely what would persuade more Americans to move money abroad using stablecoins.
It is deposit insurance and bank-grade fraud protection, and neither is available, because US regulators decided against it on purpose.
That turns the study‘s headline finding into something more useful than a growth forecast. It is a measure of what the current rulebook costs the industry.
The Twenty Point Gap
The research, conducted by Morning Consult for Visa among 2,192 US adults between February 24 and March 2, found adoption intent climbing from 36% to 56% in a scenario offering bank-equivalent protections.
Visa is careful about what that means. Its own methodology note states that scenarios involving bank-equivalent protections “are hypothetical” and that stablecoins “are not currently covered by deposit insurance.”
That Protection Is Not Coming
The gap is not a product problem waiting on a better wallet. It is a legislative choice.
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FDIC Chairman Travis Hill said in March that “the FDIC is planning to propose that payment stablecoins subject to the GENIUS Act are not eligible for pass-through insurance,” ruling out federal deposit protection for holdings that the law deliberately separates from bank deposits. The agency opened rulemaking on the framework in April.
Congress wrote the GENIUS Act to make stablecoins fully reserved rather than insured, which is a different promise from a federal guarantee. The 20 point gap Visa has measured is the demand that design leaves unserved.
If Not Insurance, Then Distribution
What issuers can still do is borrow trust rather than build it. Nearly two-thirds of respondents, 64%, said trust depends more on who offers a payment method than on the underlying technology. Willingness to use stablecoins rises from 36% to 45% when the product comes through an existing financial provider.
Banks and card networks start ahead on that measure, trusted by 61% and 60% respectively for digital currency services. Worth noting that Visa, which commissioned the study, is one of those networks.
“The future of the industry will be won by the providers that work hardest to earn that trust,” said Vira Platonova, global head of Visa Direct.
Most Americans Have Never Heard Of Them
The awareness numbers are a reminder of how early this is. More than half of US respondents, 56%, had never heard of stablecoins, and many of those who had assumed they fluctuate like Bitcoin.
The study also found 36% had encountered a cross-border payment scam, 24% had received AI-generated messages that seemed real, and 44% worry about deepfakes impersonating family members. For an industry selling safety as the unlock, that is the harder problem to solve without a federal backstop.
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