Digital wallets accounted for 56% of online and 33% of in-person spending worldwide in 2025, according to Worldpay’s Global Payments Report 2026. The report is based on 63,000+ consumers across 42 markets. The mobile wallet industry statistics below also track a second wallet economy that runs on phones rather than cards, where more than $2 trillion flowed through mobile money wallets globally in 2025, the GSMA reports. Card-linked wallets and phone-based mobile money grow on different rails, so each gets its own figures.
At PayPal, growth comes from heavier use of existing accounts. PayPal’s active accounts increased 0.3% to 439 million in Q2 2026, while its total payment volume increased 10% to $486.4 billion.
Key Takeaways
- In the US, digital wallets represent 40% of online transaction value and 17% of in-store point-of-sale value, well below the global average of 33%.
- Mobile money reached 2.3 billion registered accounts in 2025, while active 30-day accounts rose to 593 million.
- Monthly usage of mobile money accounts grew by half a percentage point to 25.7%, the highest since 2021.
- PayPal’s payment transactions per active account rose 3% to 60.0 on a trailing 12-month basis, even as the account base stayed flat.
- Cash App monthly transacting actives were 59 million in June, while Commerce Enablement volume grew 17% year over year to $56.5 billion.
- The CFPB estimated that the most widely used US payment apps process over 13 billion consumer payment transactions annually, and a joint resolution approved May 9, 2025, gave the CFPB’s rule covering them no force or effect.
Editor’s Choice
- Payment apps at the point of sale by 2030: 46% of global POS value, or $15.6 trillion, per Worldpay.
- PayPal payment transactions: 6.8 billion in Q2 2026, up 8%.
- Mercado Pago users: 88 million fintech monthly active users in Q2 2026.
- Euro area online payments: payment wallets and mobile apps made up 29% of online transactions in the ECB’s 2024 study.
- US mobile phone payments: 23% of all payments in 2024, per the Federal Reserve.
- Adults with an account: nearly 80% of adults worldwide now have a financial account, per the World Bank.
Mobile Wallet Industry Statistics: Global Payment Share
- Worldpay calls digital wallets the world’s leading payment method after they accounted for 56% of online and 33% of in-person spending in 2025.
- MRC and Visa reported that only 10% of merchants worldwide accept cryptocurrency, though stablecoins are also having their moment for cross-border payments.
- The adoption of QR codes and interoperability in APAC and LATAM, plus regulatory changes in Europe enabling greater competition, helped apps become a POS mainstay.
- In card-heavy markets like the US and the UK, wallets are a faster, more seamless way to use cards, and in A2A-led markets like India and Brazil, wallets connect directly to bank payment systems.
- In ecosystem-driven markets like China and Indonesia, wallets may function as stored-value accounts or integrated multi-service platforms.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Digital wallet share of global e-commerce value, 2025 | 56% |
| Digital wallet share of global in-store spending, 2025 | 33% |
| Payment app share of global POS value, 2030 forecast | 46% |
| Payment app POS value, 2030 forecast | $15.6 trillion |
| Direct crypto payments, share of global transaction value | 0.19% |
Source: Worldpay Global Payments Report 2026
A wallet’s share says little about how it is funded. User growth by year sits in the digital wallet adoption statistics.
About This Data
- Compiled from 16 sourced figures on 14 source pages.
- Of those figures, 11 come from primary sources and 5 from industry research, published between July 2024 and August 2026.
- Company filings, central banks, regulators and the GSMA were preferred; market-research sellers were excluded.
- Figures are updated when sources publish new editions.
Digital Wallet Share of US Payments
- Wallet adoption at the physical point of sale is growing at nearly three times the rate of overall POS growth in the US.
- Apple Pay and Google Wallet are driving most of that momentum, and PayPal announced an expansion to physical stores in late 2025; the Apple Pay user data tracks Apple’s wallet in more detail.
- The US in-store wallet share trails the global average by 16 percentage points.
- Online, digital wallets rank ahead of credit cards, which accounted for 32% of US online transaction value.
Recent Developments
- August 5, 2026, MercadoLibre reported that Fintech Services reached 88 million MAUs in Q2 2026, with Brazil and Mexico growing 38% and 45% year over year.
- Q2 2026, Block reported that it produced Cash App Tags, NFC chips that connect physical objects to a customer’s Cash App Card and turn everyday items into payment instruments.
- Q2 2026, Block also reported that it launched stablecoins on Cash App through an integration with USDC, alongside Cash App’s 59 million June monthly actives.
- July 28, 2026, PayPal reported results for the second quarter ending June 30, 2026, with total payment volume up 10% to $486.4 billion.
- April 2026, Ant International disclosed at its MoMents 2026 forum in Kuala Lumpur that it connects over 150 million global merchants with more than 2 billion user accounts.
Mobile Money Transaction Value and Accounts
- It took 20 years to pass $1 trillion in annual transaction values, but just four years for this figure to double.
- Most new registered and active accounts came from Sub-Saharan Africa, although almost every region where mobile money is offered experienced a rise.
- Active 30-day accounts rose by 15% to 593 million in 2025, so registered accounts outnumber active ones by about 3.9 to one.
- About 74.3% of registered mobile money accounts went unused in a given month.
- The number of mobile money providers offering insurance increased by one-third in 2025.
| Mobile money metric | 2025 value |
|---|---|
| Annual transaction value | More than $2 trillion |
| Registered accounts | 2.3 billion |
| Registered accounts added | 268 million |
| Active 30-day accounts | 593 million |
| Growth in active 30-day accounts | 15% |
| Monthly usage rate | 25.7% |
Source: GSMA State of the Industry Report on Mobile Money 2026
Key finding: Regular mobile money usage has increased worldwide over the past year, the GSMA found, yet most registered accounts still sit idle in any given month. Providers that turn dormant accounts into monthly users can add volume without new sign-ups, which makes activation the metric to watch in the next report.
PayPal Total Payment Volume
- Total payment volume increased 9% on a currency-neutral basis in Q2 2026.
- Year-over-year TPV growth ran at 6% in Q2 2025 and 10% in Q2 2026.
- Payment transactions per active account excluding PSP, on a trailing 12-month basis, increased 7% in Q2 2026.
The longer company history sits in the PayPal user and revenue statistics.
PayPal Active Accounts and Transactions
- Active accounts stood at 438 million in Q2 and Q3 2025 and 439 million in each of the three quarters since.
- Payment transactions per active account on a trailing 12-month basis rose from 58.3 in Q2 2025 to 60.0 in Q2 2026.
- Excluding payment service provider transactions, payment transactions increased 7%.
- On a sequential basis, active accounts decreased by 0.04%, or by 0.2 million.
By the numbers: PayPal processed 6.8 billion payment transactions in Q2 2026, up 8%, from an active account base of 439 million. With accounts flat across five quarters, the transaction growth reflects existing customers paying more often.
Cash App Monthly Transacting Actives
- Cash App monthly transacting actives grew 3% year over year in Q2 2026.
- As of June, nearly 4 million monthly transacting actives pay phone bills on Cash App.
- Consumer Lending origination volume grew 59% year over year to $18.9 billion, driven by Cash App Borrow.
- Cash App primary banking actives grew 17% year over year to 9.4 million.
With user growth slowing, Cash App leans on use per customer; the wider picture is in the Cash App user statistics.
Cash App Commerce Enablement Volume
- Commerce Enablement volume growth was driven by Cash App Card and BNPL.
- Year-over-year growth in Commerce Enablement volume ran at 14%, 17%, 17%, 18%, and 17% across the five quarters to Q2 2026.
- Cash App primary banking activities peaked at 9.7 million in Q1 2026, up from 8.0 million in Q2 2025.
Mercado Pago Users and Payment Volume
- Fintech Services AUM reached $23 billion, up 68% year over year.
- MercadoLibre’s total payment volume reached $101 billion in Q2 2026, up 56% year over year.
- Gross merchandise volume was $21.9 billion, up 44% year over year.
- Net revenues and financial income reached $10,169 million, up 50% year over year.
| MercadoLibre metric | 2025 | 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Fintech monthly active users, Q2 (million) | 68 | 88 |
| Total payment volume, Q2 ($ million) | 64,602 | 100,952 |
| Total payment volume, first half ($ million) | 122,905 | 188,138 |
Source: MercadoLibre Q2 2026 letter to shareholders
Alipay+ and Cross-Border Wallet Networks
- Ant International’s global payment services support over 300 payment methods.
- Those methods include more than 10 national QR systems and 50 digital wallets and bank apps.
- Ant International’s payment services exceed 20 million daily transactions on average.
| Ant International network | Value, April 2026 |
|---|---|
| User accounts connected | More than 2 billion |
| Global merchants connected | Over 150 million |
Source: Ant International, April 2026
Cross-border wallet links let a traveler pay with a home-market app abroad; the Alipay user data covers one of those home-market apps in more detail.
Euro Area Mobile and App Payment Statistics
- Cards were the most frequently used instrument for online payments at 48% of transactions in the ECB’s 2024 study.
- Payments with mobile devices accounted for more than 10% of POS transactions in the Netherlands, Finland and Ireland, and under 5% in seven euro area countries.
- The youngest age group used mobile payments in 10% of their POS transactions, against 3% for the oldest.
Cash still leads euro area transfers between people, which leaves app payments room to grow.
US Mobile Phone Payment Statistics
- Consumers recorded an average of 11 mobile-phone payments in the 2024 diary survey, up from 10 in the 2023 survey.
- Payments made with a mobile phone increased for all age groups in the Federal Reserve’s diary.
- The Federal Reserve’s findings come from an October 2024 diary study, so the figures predate the 2025 and 2026 data above.
Mobile Wallets and Financial Inclusion
- About 900 million adults without financial accounts have a mobile phone, including 530 million with smartphones.
- 1.3 billion adults still lack access to financial services, per the World Bank.
- In 2024, 40% of adults in developing economies saved in a financial account, a 16-percentage-point increase since 2021.
| Global Findex measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Adults worldwide with a financial account | Nearly 80% |
| Adults in developing economies saving with a mobile-money account | 10% |
| Adults in low- and middle-income countries making a digital merchant payment, 2024 | 42% |
| Adults in low- and middle-income countries making a digital merchant payment, 2021 | 35% |
| Adults worldwide owning a mobile phone | 86% |
| Adults worldwide with a smartphone | 68% |
Source: World Bank Global Findex 2025
The Findex survey data is more than 12 months old.
Mobile Wallet Regulation in the US and EU
- The CFPB limited its rule’s scope to count only transactions conducted in U.S. dollars, according to the CFPB’s final rule announcement.
- Per the European Commission’s decision, Apple Pay was the only mobile wallet that could access the NFC input on iOS to make payments in stores before the commitments.
- Apple will enable access to NFC in Host Card Emulation mode, monitored by a trustee who reports to the Commission.
- Over 60% of mobile money providers believe interoperability, know-your-customer and consumer protection regulations have supported their operations, while 24% report cross-border data transfer regulations have hindered them.
| Rule or commitment | Measure | Key figure |
|---|---|---|
| CFPB payment app rule (US) | Supervision threshold | More than 50 million transactions a year |
| Public Law 119-11 (US) | Status of the CFPB rule | No force or effect |
| Apple NFC commitments (EU) | Fee for rival wallets | Free of charge |
| Apple NFC commitments (EU) | Duration | Ten years, throughout the EEA |
Source: CFPB, US Government Publishing Office, European Commission
Why it matters: The CFPB estimated that the most widely used apps covered by its rule collectively process over 13 billion consumer payment transactions annually. With that rule voided, the largest US wallets sit outside the dedicated supervision regime the CFPB designed, while EU iPhone users gained a binding route to rival tap-to-pay wallets.
Conclusion
Digital wallets accounted for 56% of online and 33% of in-person spending globally, and more than $2 trillion flowed through mobile money wallets in the GSMA’s latest count. The operator data shows both more accounts and heavier use. Mercado Pago added users and mobile money added accounts, while PayPal and Cash App grew mainly through use per account. The next leg of growth depends on stores and deeper engagement.
Worldpay expects payment apps to account for 46% of global POS value by 2030. Regulation will shape how fast that happens, with the EU forcing open iPhone NFC access while the US dropped its dedicated app rule. The broader shift is tracked in the digital payment statistics.
