Accepting Crypto Payments: How It Works for a Business

Accepting crypto is the same shape as accepting cards. A provider handles the payment, takes the risk of the method, and pays you in ordinary money. The straightforward version of this is what a crypto payment gateway with fiat settlement publishes, and it is worth comparing.

The steps

Your checkout asks the provider to create a payment. The provider works out how much crypto equals your price and shows the customer an address, an amount and a time limit.

The customer sends it. The provider waits for the blockchain to confirm. It converts the crypto to money. It pays you on its settlement schedule, usually the next business day.

Who carries the risk while the price moves

This is the question that separates providers and it is often not answered clearly.

If the provider guarantees the amount in ordinary money from the moment the payment is created, it is carrying the risk of the price moving while the customer pays. You receive exactly what you invoiced.

If it converts at the moment the payment arrives and passes you the result, you carry that risk. Usually it is minutes and nothing happens. Occasionally it is not.

For a business selling at fixed prices, the guaranteed version is almost always right. A two percent move can wipe out the margin on a product.

What it costs

Typically half a percent to one and a half percent, compared with roughly one and a half to three percent for cards in most European markets. The version of this for larger amounts runs through a payment processor for high-risk e-commerce.

The saving is real but it is usually not the main reason. The main reasons are that payments cannot be reversed, and that some customers can pay this way who cannot pay by card.

No chargebacks

Once a crypto payment confirms, the customer cannot reverse it.

For most merchants this is a modest benefit. For merchants in categories where card providers charge four to eight percent because of disputes, it changes the economics entirely.

It does not remove fraud. You can still send goods to a fraudulent order. It removes the specific problem of having a payment taken back after you shipped.

Underpayment

More common than with cards, because the customer is building the transaction themselves and their wallet sometimes takes the network fee out of the amount.

Providers handle this differently. Set a small tolerance, so a payment short by a few cents is accepted rather than becoming a support ticket.

Refunds need a decision

Refunding a crypto payment means sending crypto back, and the amount at today’s price is not the amount at the original price.

Decide before launch: refund the original crypto amount, refund the original money amount converted at today’s price, or refund by bank transfer. All three are defensible. Having no answer produces an argument with the first customer who asks.

What to check before signing up

Which currency, which country and which account name it settles to. The price risk model. The tolerance for short payments. Which cryptocurrencies and which networks. How you integrate. And how refunds work. The thing that only matters when something goes wrong is whether a regulated European crypto platform exists, and it is worth checking before it does.