Chargebacks911, a global leader in dispute resolution and chargeback management, says the cryptocurrency industry is closer to mainstream adoption than most people think, but is missing the one ingredient that has driven consumer confidence in every successful payment system before it: reliable, enforceable protection when something goes wrong after a transaction is completed.

Crypto ownership is growing. The 2026 Cryptocurrency Adoption and Sentiment Report from Security.org shows that 30% of Americans owned cryptocurrency in 2025, up from 27% in 2024. Yet ownership has not translated into everyday payment behaviour at the scale the industry needs. Pew Research Center finds that 75% of Americans have little or no confidence that cryptocurrency exchanges can safeguard their funds. And the FCA's Cryptoasset Consumer Research 2025 found that 12% of non-owners cite a belief that there is no protection if something goes wrong as a primary reason for staying out of the market entirely. That is a consumer confidence problem and it has a clear solution.

"The crypto industry has made real progress on fraud prevention and platform security, and that matters," said Monica Eaton, Founder and CEO of Chargebacks911. "But the foundation of consumer confidence in any payment system is not just whether fraud is prevented. It is whether consumers know that if something goes wrong after a transaction, there is a clear mechanism to make it right. That is what made card payments the default for everyday spending. It is what airline loyalty programmes understood before crypto did. And it is what crypto needs to build now."

From speculative asset to payment system

Delta's SkyMiles programme is valued at approximately $26 billion, more than many airlines' total market capitalisation. It reached that valuation because consumers trust that their points have real, redeemable value and that there is a clear process if something goes wrong. Crypto assets have exactly the same potential. The gap between that potential and today's reality is not a gap in blockchain capability. It is a gap in post-transaction consumer protection and closing it is what turns a speculative asset into a payment system.

Card networks understood this long before crypto existed. They did not achieve global dominance through superior technology alone. They built a layer of consumer protection – a dispute process, a chargeback mechanism, a network that enforces outcomes – that made spending feel safe. The same consumer protections that helped card networks become the default mechanism for everyday spending will play an equally important role in crypto's transition from investment asset to payment method. The movement of crypto assets can be decentralised and peer-to-peer. But the consumer protection standards that make those assets trustworthy enough to spend every day require the same centralised, enforceable infrastructure that underpins every mature payment system. Those two things are not in conflict. The industry simply needs to build both.

Research published in the Sift Q4 2025 Digital Trust Index confirms the commercial cost of the gap: 62% of consumers say they would be less likely, or would stop entirely, engaging with a brand after a negative experience involving a disputed transaction. The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center reported 181,565 cryptocurrency-related complaints in 2025, totaling more than $11 billion in consumer losses. Each complaint represents a consumer whose confidence in crypto as a payment system was damaged. Multiply that across a market trying to achieve mainstream adoption and the cost becomes clear.

Building the infrastructure adoption requires

Many crypto platforms cannot yet generate or access the dispute intelligence needed to close this gap independently. Without connections to acquiring networks, issuer data, and cross-platform signals, platforms cannot reliably distinguish friendly fraud from legitimate grievances, or defend their position when a chargeback is filed through a card-funded channel. Greater payment adoption is the key to reducing volatility and building long-term crypto value. The more consumers use crypto for everyday transactions with confidence, the more stable and valuable those assets become, the same dynamic that turned airline miles into a $26 billion financial product.

"The platforms investing in post-transaction infrastructure now aren’t just solving a compliance problem," said Eaton. "They are building the consumer confidence that drives payment adoption, long-term stability, and sustainable value. That is the cycle the industry needs. And it starts with making sure that when something goes wrong, consumers know someone will make it right."

Chargebacks911 helps crypto exchanges build that foundation through its Unified Dispute Management System (UDMS) and ResolveLab, which use AI and machine learning to classify disputes accurately, defend against illegitimate chargebacks, and identify risk patterns before they become reputational problems -- delivering measurable improvements in dispute win rates, resolution times, and revenue recovery across both UK and US markets.

Industry scrutiny around dispute handling and consumer protections is expected to intensify as regulatory frameworks continue to develop across the UK, EU, and US. The platforms that build consumer protection infrastructure proactively will be best positioned to lead the mainstream adoption phase that the entire industry is working toward.

Chargebacks911 supports clients in nearly 100 countries and safeguards more than 2.4 billion transactions per year through its UDMS and ResolveLab platforms.