The Currency Coverage Decision: How PSPs Determine Which Digital Assets to Accept Before Expanding to New Merchant Categories

Payment service providers expanding into new merchant categories face one question before everything else: which digital assets should they actually support? Get this wrong, and a PSP absorbs unnecessary compliance exposure, fragments its liquidity, and creates a poor merchant experience. Get it right, and digital asset coverage becomes a competitive advantage that supports sustainable growth. This article breaks down the framework PSPs use to make that decision, and why the infrastructure layer underneath it matters as much as the currency list itself.

TL;DR

• Digital asset selection is a strategic decision, not a technical one. Compliance, liquidity, merchant fit, and network costs all factor in.
• Regulatory clarity is accelerating. U.S. banking regulators and global agencies are publishing clearer guidance on which assets institutions can support.
• Stablecoins are increasingly the entry point for PSPs moving into new merchant categories because they reduce volatility risk without sacrificing settlement speed.
• Infrastructure determines what is actually possible. A PSP can only support assets its custody and compliance layer can handle.
• The right coverage decision is not about listing every asset. It is about matching the right assets to the right merchant verticals.

About the Author: Cregis has spent nine years building enterprise-grade digital asset infrastructure for payment service providers, banks, and financial institutions across 50+ countries, processing over $300 billion in transactions. This article draws on that operational experience to offer a practitioner's view of how currency coverage decisions actually work in practice.

Why Is Digital Asset Selection a Strategic Decision, Not a Technical One?

Currency coverage is not simply a question of which blockchains a PSP can technically connect to. It is a business decision that sits at the intersection of compliance, risk appetite, merchant demand, and operational capacity.

A PSP entering, say, a cross-border travel marketplace faces different currency demands than one entering digital goods or gaming. Each merchant category carries its own customer geography, settlement frequency, average transaction size, and regulatory profile. The digital assets that work well for one vertical can create real problems for another.

This is why PSPs that treat currency selection as purely a feature decision often find themselves managing compliance exposure or liquidity mismatches that were entirely avoidable. The starting point is always the merchant context, not the asset list.

What Does the Regulatory Environment Say About Which Assets PSPs Can Support?

Regulatory clarity is improving, but it is still uneven across jurisdictions. PSPs need to map their asset shortlist against current regulatory guidance in each market they plan to serve.

In the United States, the picture has shifted meaningfully. The OCC clarified in May 2025 that national banks have authority to provide digital asset custody and execution services [occ.gov]. Federal agencies followed with joint guidance in July 2025 specifically addressing how existing risk management principles apply to safekeeping digital assets at banks [consumerfinancialserviceslawmonitor.com]. The OCC's earlier March 2025 guidance also removed constraints that previously limited how banks could engage with digital assets, creating a clearer path for PSPs operating inside or alongside the banking system [consumerfinancemonitor.com].

On the tax and classification side, the IRS continues to treat digital assets as property for U.S. tax purposes [irs.gov], which has direct implications for merchant reporting obligations that PSPs must build into their workflows.

In New York, the NYDFS updated its custody guidance for virtual currency assets in September 2025, adding requirements around blockchain analytics for licensed institutions [arnoldporter.com]. For any PSP serving New York-based merchants, this means that currency support decisions must account for the availability of transaction monitoring tools for each asset.

Looking ahead, the GENIUS Act is expected to bring federal stablecoin regulations in 2026, which would formally allow traditional financial institutions to issue stablecoins [skadden.com]. This significantly de-risks stablecoin adoption for PSPs that were previously waiting for legislative clarity.

The practical takeaway: before adding any asset to a supported currency list, a PSP must confirm that the asset is operationally supportable under the regulatory frameworks governing its target merchant categories.

How Do PSPs Evaluate Individual Digital Assets for New Merchant Categories?

Building on the regulatory baseline, the evaluation framework for individual assets typically runs across five dimensions:

A PSP that clears all five dimensions for an asset has a strong case for supporting it. An asset that fails on compliance tooling or regulatory clarity should generally not be added, regardless of merchant demand, because the operational risk is disproportionate.

Why Are Stablecoins Usually the Starting Point for PSP Expansion?

Stepping back from the asset-by-asset evaluation, there is a pattern worth naming: most PSPs entering new merchant categories start with stablecoins before adding other assets.

The logic is straightforward. Stablecoins eliminate the settlement risk that comes from volatility. A merchant receiving payment does not want to discover that the value of their settlement dropped between transaction and conversion. Stablecoins, particularly USD-pegged ones like USDT and USDC, provide the predictability that merchants in most commercial categories require.

Beyond merchant preference, stablecoins tend to have the strongest compliance tooling ecosystem, the most established regulatory guidance, and the deepest liquidity pools relative to other digital assets. For a PSP that is expanding into a new vertical and wants to minimize variables while it builds operational experience, stablecoins offer the most controlled entry point.

The anticipated federal stablecoin framework in 2026 [skadden.com] is likely to accelerate this pattern, giving PSPs clearer grounds to present stablecoin-based payment options to merchant partners who previously had governance concerns.

How Does Infrastructure Determine What Currency Coverage Is Actually Achievable?

A related but distinct question is whether the PSP's infrastructure can actually support the assets it has identified as commercially and regulatorily viable.

This is where many PSPs encounter their real constraint. Currency coverage is only as good as the custody, settlement, and compliance layer underneath it. If a PSP's infrastructure supports ten networks, its supported asset list is bounded by those ten networks regardless of what the market demands.

The infrastructure requirements for responsible currency coverage include:

• Multi-network custody that can hold and move assets across the networks where target assets reside
• Real-time compliance monitoring with transaction screening tools that cover every supported asset
• Flexible settlement paths that allow assets to be converted or routed without manual intervention
• Programmable controls that let compliance teams apply different rules to different asset types or merchant categories
• Audit-ready record-keeping that satisfies reporting obligations across relevant jurisdictions

PSPs that build on infrastructure designed specifically for this environment, rather than adapting general-purpose payment rails, are able to expand their currency coverage more quickly and with fewer compliance gaps. The right infrastructure layer provides secure, efficient, and compliant multi-network support, allowing PSPs to match coverage expansion to merchant demand without operational friction.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the first thing a PSP should assess before adding a new digital asset? Regulatory classification. Before evaluating liquidity or merchant demand, a PSP must confirm the asset can be legally held, transferred, and settled in each jurisdiction it operates in.

How does merchant category affect digital asset selection? Different merchant verticals have different transaction profiles, customer geographies, and risk tolerances. An asset that works well for a cross-border B2B marketplace may not suit a consumer-facing retail vertical where customer protection requirements are stricter.

Are stablecoins treated differently from other digital assets by regulators? Yes, and the treatment continues to evolve. In the U.S., federal stablecoin legislation is expected in 2026 under the GENIUS Act [skadden.com], which would create a specific regulatory framework for stablecoin issuance. PSPs should monitor this closely as it will directly affect what they can offer merchants.

What compliance tooling is required before supporting a new asset? At minimum, a PSP needs transaction monitoring that can screen the asset against sanctions lists and flag suspicious patterns. The NYDFS guidance updated in late 2025 specifically requires blockchain analytics for institutions operating under New York licensing [arnoldporter.com].

How many digital assets should a PSP typically support when entering a new merchant category? Fewer is usually better at the start. A focused list of well-supported assets with strong compliance tooling is operationally safer than broad coverage with uneven controls. Most PSPs begin with one or two stablecoins and expand from there based on demonstrated merchant demand.

How does infrastructure limit or enable currency coverage expansion? Infrastructure determines which networks a PSP can access, which assets it can custody, and which compliance tools it can apply. A PSP cannot support an asset its infrastructure cannot reach or monitor.

How do PSPs manage currency coverage across multiple jurisdictions simultaneously? Through programmable rule layers that apply jurisdiction-specific controls to each asset and each merchant category, without requiring manual configuration for every combination. This is why enterprise infrastructure with policy engines and multi-jurisdiction compliance tooling is particularly valuable for PSPs operating globally.

About Cregis

Cregis is an enterprise-grade digital asset infrastructure company that has operated for nine years, serving 3,500+ businesses across 50+ countries and securing over $300 billion in transactions. Cregis provides the foundational trust layer that enables PSPs, banks, and financial institutions to expand digital asset coverage responsibly, delivering secure, efficient, and compliant infrastructure across digital asset networks. The platform includes custody, real-time compliance monitoring, and a multi-network payment engine, with certifications including SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, PCI DSS, and CertiK-verified smart contracts, reflecting alignment with the first tier of security standard of the industry.

If you are a PSP evaluating which digital assets to support as you expand into new merchant categories, explore how Cregis can provide the infrastructure foundation your coverage decisions require at https://www.cregis.com/.