We now have a full year of payment statistics. What have we learnt in 2025, what coins are actually used, and what coins are more bark than bite?

Payment statistics in review 🥳

We now have a full year of payment statistics. What have we learnt in 2025, what coins are actually used, and what coins are more bark than bite?

Read on for a short🧵 pic.twitter.com/VZdLjylcrt
— Nano-GPT (@NanoGPTcom) January 2, 2026

Here's what the data tells us. ## #1: Monero (XMR) — The Clear Winner **Monero** became our most-used cryptocurrency in May 2025 and never looked back. In some months, Monero was used more than all other cryptocurrencies *combined*. We're privacy-aligned, and we're very happy that Monero is doing so well. ## #2: Nano (XNO) — Punching Above Its Weight Despite competing against coins with literally 100x its market cap, **Nano** is consistently our first or second most-used payment method. It's a developer's and merchant's dream: instant transactions, zero fees, and clearly a lot of dedicated users. ## #3: Bitcoin (BTC) — We Had to Eat Our Words Third place goes to **Bitcoin**, especially after we integrated Lightning Network support. We'll admit it — Bitcoin is "actually used" a lot more than we had expected, particularly for larger transactions. We're glad to be wrong on this one. ## #4: Litecoin (LTC) — The Quiet Performer Fourth place is a close call, but for the year overall it goes to **Litecoin** (including MWEB transactions). Funnily enough, Litecoin is the one we hear least about from the community, but it's quietly used a lot. ## Rising Star: USDC on Base **USDC**, primarily on Base, has been taking flight recently — up to 10.85% this month and getting close to Bitcoin's share. This growth particularly accelerated after we launched x402 payments, making AI access seamless for autonomous agents. ## What We Expected vs. Reality The results are largely what you'd expect: - **Monero** — Expected to do well, though perhaps not *this* well - **Bitcoin, Litecoin, USDC** — Expected steady usage, which matches what we observed - **Nano** — Most would *not* expect it to be used this much ## The BitPay Comparison Our stats partially align with BitPay's data, where Litecoin leads (#1), followed by Bitcoin (#2), then USDC/ETH (#3). These coins are all in our top 5 as well. But here's the interesting part: the two coins BitPay doesn't offer — **Monero and Nano** — beat all the others by a landslide on our platform. ## Recommendations ### For Merchants Use **BTCPay Server**. We love it. It supports all our top coins — Monero (#1), Nano (#2), Bitcoin (#3), Litecoin (#4) — plus ZCash (also increasingly popular) and Doge. It's fully self-custodial and an amazing piece of open-source software. ### For Cryptocurrency Enthusiasts **SPEDN.** Seriously. Your coin might be technically fantastic, but as a merchant, it's most likely a pain to integrate — and frankly, we don't care about a coin unless it's actually being used. If you want your favorite cryptocurrency to gain merchant adoption: - Integrate with BTCPay Server - It's open source - It makes integration so much easier for merchants ## Looking Ahead We're incredibly happy to be able to share these statistics. We've been in the crypto space for a long time, and to be contributing to the ecosystem — expanding the actual real-world usage of cryptocurrency while making a living doing so — is a dream come true. Thank you to everyone who used NanoGPT in 2025. You contributed to the crypto ecosystem, you made these statistics possible, and you enabled us to build this platform. We hope to see many more merchants start accepting crypto in 2026. Onwards!

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