Ripple survey: 97% of payment firms believe in the power of crypto

The lack of regulatory clarity is the biggest hurdle to the adoption of crypto-enabled payments, according to a new survey co-hosted by Ripple.

The global payments industry is bullish on the potential of cryptocurrencies and blockchain to enable faster and cheaper transactions, according to a new survey co-hosted by Ripple.

Blockchain-based digital payment network Ripple and the Faster Payments Council (FPC) payment organization on March 2 issued a report devoted to the opportunities of crypto-enabled payments.

Titled “Transforming the Way Money Moves,” the report provides insights on global crypto payment trends based on a survey sent to over 950 FPC subscribers, such as analysts and CEOs across 45 countries. The survey included a total of 281 respondents addressing 25 questions on topics of blockchain payments use cases and benefits, digital asset ownership and usage barriers. Fieldwork for the survey was conducted during the first half of 2022.

According to survey results, nearly every surveyed FPC subscriber — or 97% of respondents — believed that cryptocurrency and blockchain tech will have a significant role in enabling faster payments in the next three years. More than 50% of surveyed payment executives believe that most merchants will accept crypto payments within one to three years.

27% of respondents for Middle East and African execs believe that the majority of merchants will be crypto-friendly already in 2024. According to Ripple and FPC, such an optimism in these markets could stem from crypto-enabled solutions like mobile payments and central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs.

Despite 52% of respondents considering crypto use for payments, only 17% of those supported crypto-enabled payments at the time of the survey, according to the report.

The biggest reasons for not adopting crypto technologies for payments by respondents just yet were regulatory clarity and limited adoption, the report notes. Nearly 90% of respondents pointed to regulatory ambiguity as the main hurdle to crypto payments, while 45% of interviewees cited limited industry acceptance.

In 2022, the financial data platform Pymnts and the crypto payment firm Bitpay issued a survey suggesting that the majority of respondents for businesses with an annual income of $1 billion were adopting crypto payments to find and gain new customers.

The latest report by Ripple further reaffirms the significant potential of crypto-related technologies to become a crucial part of the global financial system. As one survey from Zogby Analytics and CasperLabs suggests, as many as 90% of enterprises in the United States, the United Kingdom and China have been experimenting with blockchain technology as of early 2023.

The news comes amid Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse’s expressing expectations that the XRP lawsuit with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission would be resolved this year.

“It’s been almost two and a half years since that litigation began. We’ve tried to move forward as quickly as we possibly could,” Garlinghouse said, adding that Ripple expects a decision “certainly in 2023.”