As the metaverse continues to evolve into a viable space for retail commerce, one question looms large: How will consumers choose to pay in virtual reality (VR) settings? While digital wallets like Apple Pay and Google Pay have transformed everyday life and online retail, cryptocurrency—once considered the future of finance—is grappling with a rocky road to adoption. A new study, “Retailing in Metaverse: Cryptocurrency and Consumer Payment Choices in Virtual Reality Environments,” tries to map that route. The research team, made up of Walton College’s Leah Smith, Nandini Nim (Colorado State University), Yoonsun Jeong (The University of Texas at El Paso), and Jessica Felix Martinez (University of Southern Indiana) investigated whether shoppers prefer credit cards, digital wallets, or cryptocurrency when making purchases in VR.
The group's prescient findings are instructive for retailers and fintech innovators who are reconciling emerging virtual commerce with advanced payment technologies.
Retail in the VR Marketplace
The metaverse—a 3D immersive environment that enables users to interact using digital avatars—has already begun to reshape the way people shop. Retailers like Walmart and platforms like Roblox have launched virtual shopping experiences that simulate real-world product interaction. According to PwC, 32% of VR users have browsed or purchased items in an immersive setting. As this channel grows, understanding how consumers behave (and pay) becomes crucial.
Cryptocurrency currently dominates metaverse transactions, with 80% of VR consumers using it as a primary payment method. This study, however, revealed that mainstream consumers continue to lean on traditional options like digital wallets and credit cards due to trust, familiarity, and perceived security.
Money Meets Metaverse
To uncover what drives payment choices in VR, the four researchers conducted three carefully designed experiments. Using both lab simulations and surveys, the team observed participants as they shopped in virtual and traditional environments, offering different payment options along the way.
The first experiment tackled a fundamental question: Do immersive VR environments naturally push consumers toward newer payment technologies like cryptocurrency? To find out, researchers had 134 participants shop for groceries in either VR or traditional online formats. All shoppers were offered a 10% discount as an incentive to use either digital wallets or cryptocurrency.
The results were clear and consistent across both environments. Participants overwhelmingly preferred digital wallets over cryptocurrency, regardless of whether they were shopping in VR or conventional online settings. This revealed an important insight: Even in next-generation simulated worlds, the novelty effect isn't strong enough to overcome people's deep-seated preference for familiar, trusted payment methods.
The second experiment explored whether security concerns outweigh convenience when it comes to cryptocurrency adoption in virtual environments. Researchers created a VR gaming context where 303 participants were divided into three distinct groups. One group received messages emphasizing cryptocurrency's security features, another was told about its growing convenience and acceptance by retailers, and a control group received no special information.
The findings revealed a striking pattern: only the security-focused messaging significantly increased the willingness to use cryptocurrency. Surprisingly, convenience messaging showed no meaningful impact on adoption intentions. Follow-up checks confirmed that while security messages effectively raised perceived security, they didn't influence convenience perceptions. This demonstrates that when it comes to cryptocurrency adoption, addressing trust and security concerns is far more persuasive than highlighting convenience or widespread acceptance.
The third experiment delved deeper into the psychological factors driving cryptocurrency engagement—mainly trying to answer how important trust and stability are to VR users when deciding whether to use cryptocurrency. Using a much larger sample of 768 confirmed VR headset owners, researchers again divided participants into three groups: control, security reassurance, and convenience messaging.
This time, they measured several potential mediating factors: trust in cryptocurrency providers, perceptions of market volatility, and overall familiarity with the technology. The results reinforced and expanded on previous findings. Security-focused messaging significantly boosted trust levels and, importantly, reduced perceived volatility concerns. Convenience messaging, once again, failed to move the needle on adoption intentions. Perceptions of trust and volatility were significant predictors of willingness to use cryptocurrency. Interestingly, familiarity did not differ across conditions, suggesting that simply knowing about cryptocurrency isn't enough to drive adoption. The study clearly demonstrated that building psychological trust and addressing concerns about market stability are the pivotal factors for increasing cryptocurrency adoption in virtual environments.
Reality Check for Retail
These findings offer valuable guidance for retailers exploring payment options in virtual environments. Digital wallets represent the comfortable baseline that consumers already trust and prefer and should thus remain central to any omnichannel strategy. When introducing cryptocurrency options, retailers should focus their messaging primarily on security features rather than convenience or merchant acceptance. Building trust in cryptocurrency providers is essential—partnerships with established, trusted tech firms like Apple or Google could significantly ease this transition for hesitant consumers.
Addressing volatility concerns is also important. Retailers might consider offering stablecoin alternatives (such as PayPal's USD) that mitigate perceptions of market instability. Education remains a critical component of any cryptocurrency adoption strategy—interactive tutorials, real-time transaction displays showing successful purchases, and strategic influencer partnerships can all help bridge the knowledge gap and increase consumer confidence and trust.
Platform-specific currencies like Robux or MANA may also serve as effective steppingstones to broader cryptocurrency adoption, as consumers tend to view these metaverse-specific options as less risky than general cryptocurrencies.
Crypto's Future in the Metaverse
The team concluded that despite early enthusiasm for cryptocurrency, its widespread adoption in virtual retail environments will not happen organically. This study shows that even pioneering sensory environments like VR do little to sway consumer behavior when trust and security are in question. For cryptocurrency to compete with digital wallets, retailers must invest in education, transparency, and partnerships that lower the psychological barriers to adoption. In the metaverse, innovation may be inevitable—but trust is everything to humans.
For retailers, the takeaway is clear: integrating crypto into virtual shopping won’t just be about keeping up with tech trends—it’ll require thoughtful, customer-first design. Brands should focus on building experiences that feel intuitive and familiar, offering clear guidance at the point of payment and reinforcing security through trusted partners. Since confusion and uncertainty can be amplified in immersive spaces, things like in-app tutorials, verified providers, and integrated loyalty rewards could go a long way in reducing friction and boosting confidence.
As for future research, there is still much to be understood about how trust in cryptocurrency can evolve with continued exposure and whether educational efforts can gradually close the gap between curiosity and actual usage. There’s also room to understand how different audiences respond—what builds trust for one demographic may fall flat for another. And as social interaction becomes a bigger part of the metaverse experience, researchers might examine how peer influence or community behavior could shape the way people approach new payment methods. The fate of cryptocurrency in VR may depend less on the technology itself and more on how well it aligns with the human need for clarity, connection, and confidence.
