Payhound was voted the Best Crypto Payment Provider at the SiGMA Europe Awards 2026, one of the most prominent events in the global iGaming and fintech payments calendar. The award honours regulated financial services providers demonstrating measurable progress in enterprise crypto payment solutions and stablecoin settlement infrastructure.
A crypto payment provider is a licensed financial services partner that allows businesses to accept, process, and settle transactions using digital assets and stablecoins. They bridge the gap between blockchain networks and traditional fiat infrastructure, ensuring secure, compliant, and predictable operational cross-border settlements.
This achievement comes as demand for practical, regulated crypto solutions grows steadily across the industry, and the gap between early crypto experimentation and operational deployment continues to narrow.
Businesses across regulated industries are increasingly treating crypto and stablecoin payments as a practical alternative to traditional payment rails, rather than an experimental add-on. Slower settlement windows, higher cross-border costs, and limited flexibility for certain customer segments have pushed finance and payments teams to look beyond conventional infrastructure.
Stablecoins, in particular USDT and USDC, have gained traction as an operational payment and settlement tool. Their price consistency makes them far more suitable for business use than volatile crypto assets, and adoption among finance and treasury teams has grown as the regulatory framework around them has matured.
MiCA's arrival in Europe has accelerated that process by setting standards for crypto assets covering issuers and service providers alike. By establishing a unified legal framework across all 27 EU member states, MiCA mitigates counterparty risk and provides the regulatory clarity required for institutional treasury management. This shift transitions digital assets from speculative vehicles into standardised corporate payment rails.
Crypto is shifting from an asset class into functional payment infrastructure, and the businesses leading that shift are looking for providers that can deliver reliable settlement, straightforward onboarding, transparent reporting, and dependable conversion between crypto and fiat.
The requirements finance and payments teams bring to crypto infrastructure are not fundamentally different from those they apply to any other payment method. Settlement needs to be predictable, reporting needs to be audit-ready, onboarding needs to be straightforward, and conversion between crypto and fiat needs to work consistently and at an acceptable cost.
Where crypto adds complexity is in the compliance layer. Selecting a provider now requires the same due diligence as onboarding any licensed financial services partner, and the approach taken to crypto payments processing needs to meet the same standards as the rest of the payment stack.
That bar has undoubtedly risen as regulation has developed, and it will continue to rise as enforcement beds in across EU jurisdictions. For operators in regulated markets, this means the provider selection process has become a compliance decision as much as a commercial one.
The question is no longer simply which provider offers the best rates, but which one can demonstrate the regulatory standing to operate as a long-term B2B crypto gateway and infrastructure partner.
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Being named Best Crypto Payment Provider 2026 in Europe reflects both the progress Payhound has made as a business and the broader maturation of the market it operates in. Operators have raised their expectations considerably, making recognition for crypto payments in iGaming harder to earn and more meaningful when it comes.
Upon becoming one of the SiGMA Europe Awards winners, Elton Dimech, Managing Director of Payhound, said: "This award reflects the trust our clients place in us and the commitment of our team to delivering on that trust. The industry is continuing to evolve, and our focus remains on helping businesses transact with crypto and stablecoins in a way that is secure, practical, and built for real operational use."
The award also reflects the trust of the clients and partners Payhound works with, as well as the team behind the infrastructure they rely on.
Regulated infrastructure and stablecoin adoption are fast becoming standard practice across the payments industry. As such, while this award marks an important milestone, the work it represents is ongoing.
Follow Payhound.com for more insights on crypto payments, stablecoins, and the future of payment infrastructure for regulated businesses.
The best providers are distinguished by robust regulatory compliance (such as MiCA alignment), transparent audit-ready reporting, automated crypto-to-fiat conversion, and low-latency settlement infrastructure that seamlessly integrates into existing corporate treasury stacks.
Stablecoins (like USDT or USDC) peg their value to a fiat currency, eliminating the price volatility associated with traditional crypto assets. This price consistency makes them highly dependable for corporate settlements, payroll, and cross-border B2B transactions.
The Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation provides a harmonised regulatory framework across the EU. It legitimises crypto asset service providers (CASPs), protects institutional users, and gives compliance-driven enterprises the legal certainty needed to integrate crypto infrastructure.
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