The U.S. dollar has taken a bit of a beating in 2025, down almost 10% year-to-date against the euro, down more than 8% against the Mexican peso, down 8% against the Japanese yen.

For much of the past 80 years, greenbacks served as the world’s reserve currency — no matter if your company was based in Italy or Japan or Mexico, if you were selling oil or crops or machinery across borders, businesses wanted to be paid in dollars because it was more stable and more fungible than most every other currency out there.

Now, make no mistake, the dollar is still the world’s reserve currency. But since the Trump administration’s trade wars of the past few months? Well, some companies that export to the U.S. want a different currency these days.

Paula Comings has been getting more calls from American importers lately. She’s the head of foreign exchange sales at U.S. Bank.

First, there was a Midwest timber company. An Eastern European machinery supplier wanted to be paid in euros. And then a California buyer who sources produce from south of the border.

“This Mexican supplier, a farming conglomerate, had always preferred to receive dollars, and now had said, go ahead and pay us in peso instead,” Comings said.

Both of those companies were game — they could basically negotiate cheaper prices if they agreed to ditch the dollar. But they were also pretty surprised.

“For so long dollar was king. And particularly within these emerging markets, suppliers they were more than happy to receive dollars because it was their safe haven,” Comings said.

The dollar has dropped this year partly because foreign investors don’t like President Trump’s trade policies. And if investors don’t want American assets like Treasury bonds, they don’t need U.S. dollars.

Especially if those dollars ain't buying what they used to.

“Businesses are looking at that decline since the beginning of the year, and they're thinking, ‘If this continues, I don't want to be paid in dollars, because that'll mean that I have less purchasing power domestically,’” said Karl Schamotta, chief market strategist at the cross-border payment company Corpay.

Now, most of the evidence of international transactions ditching the dollar is anecdotal. The real data lags on this type of stuff.

Economist Eswar Prasad at Cornell University doesn’t believe the greenback’s global status is going away overnight, mostly because there still aren’t great alternatives.

But he said if there is a major shift way from dollar dominance, it will likely be abrupt and painful.

“That would mean turmoil in U.S. government bond markets, which in turn would mean turmoil in U.S. financial markets more broadly, and this could spill over into global financial turmoil,” he said.

Again, very few experts see that happening tomorrow. But those anecdotes are raising eyebrows.