The founding proposition was peer-to-peer electronic cash. Nearly two decades later, the share of retail purchases made with cryptocurrency is negligible in every major economy.
The volatility problem
Nobody wants to spend an asset that might be worth substantially more next month, and no merchant wants to accept one that might be worth less by settlement. Both sides have the same objection from opposite directions.
Stablecoins solve this, which is why crypto payments that do work are almost entirely stablecoin payments.
The reversal problem
Card payments can be disputed. That protection costs money – it is a large part of what merchant fees pay for – and consumers value it enormously.
Crypto transactions are final. For a buyer, that is strictly worse. Sending money to a merchant with no recourse if the goods never arrive is not an improvement.
The tax problem
In many jurisdictions spending appreciated cryptocurrency is a taxable disposal. Buying coffee generates a capital gains calculation, which is an absurd amount of friction for a small purchase.
The competition problem
Existing payments work. Tapping a card takes a second, costs the consumer nothing directly, and includes fraud protection. A replacement has to be better than that, not merely different.
Where it does work
Cross-border business payments, where the alternative is expensive and slow. Payments to and from countries with capital controls or unstable currencies. Any transaction where the conventional route is blocked rather than merely inconvenient.
That is a real market, and it is not retail.
The likely future
Crypto as settlement infrastructure behind conventional interfaces. The consumer taps a card, the merchant receives local currency, and something in the middle used a stablecoin. Nobody involved needs to know.