77% of CFOs Cite Crypto Compliance Uncertainty

That was the main signal from “Waiting for Certainty: Why Most CFOs Are Holding Back on Crypto and Stablecoins,” the March installment of PYMNTS Intelligence’s 2026 Certainty Project. Based on a survey of 60 CFOs at middle-market companies in the United States with annual revenues between $100 million and $1 billion, the report examined what helps or hinders the adoption of cryptocurrencies and stablecoins for business payments and treasury functions.

The findings showed that digital assets have entered the CFO conversation, but for most firms, they have not entered everyday financial operations.

The CFO story is not about fear of innovation. It is about control. Finance chiefs are responsible for cash flow, liquidity, compliance, accounting and risk. That makes digital assets harder to justify when rules remain unsettled and internal systems are built around familiar bank and treasury workflows. Stablecoins appear to have a more practical path than cryptocurrencies, but even stablecoins remain a low priority for most CFOs until the surrounding infrastructure feels safer and easier to manage, the report revealed.

The data showed how cautious finance leaders remain:

• Regulatory or compliance uncertainty was cited by 77% of CFOs as a barrier to using cryptocurrencies for business payments or treasury functions, and 67% said the same about stablecoins.

• The share of CFOs who said their firms have not discussed or considered using stablecoins was 58%. For cryptocurrencies, it was 70%. Only 13% currently use stablecoins, and just 5% use cryptocurrencies.

• Integration with major banking providers would make stablecoins a more meaningful part of payment flows, according to 45% of CFOs. Regulatory clarity and compliance certainty were cited by 40%.

This is why the stablecoin opportunity looks less like a crypto adoption story and more like a CFO infrastructure story. Among firms already using stablecoins or cryptocurrencies, bank-integrated solutions were the most common access point for stablecoins, cited by 12% of CFOs. Payments or treasury FinTechs followed at 8%, while self-custody wallets and regulated exchanges trailed behind.

CFOs appear more comfortable using digital assets when they come through providers that already fit into compliance and treasury processes.

The same pattern appeared in how firms use digital assets. Stablecoin users most often use them to pay domestic suppliers, cited by 88%, and to receive cross-border payments, cited by 63%. But they are not treating them as balance sheet assets. Firms that received cryptocurrency payments converted them to U.S. dollars immediately in all cases, while 88% of stablecoin payments were converted right away.

That behavior says a lot about the CFO mindset. Digital assets may be useful as a payments rail, but most finance leaders do not want prolonged exposure. The upside is faster settlement, better cross-border support and potential supplier-payment improvements. The hurdle is that CFOs need rules, controls, accounting clarity and bank-grade integration before they make digital assets part of the operating model.

For payments firms, banks and treasury providers, the opening is clear. Selling CFOs on crypto-style disruption will likely miss the mark. Helping them use stablecoins inside familiar, regulated and auditable workflows may be the better path forward.

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