Ecommerce is more popular than ever thanks to the pandemic forcing many people to stay at home. Out of necessity and convenience, consumers have had to turn to online marketplaces for many of their shopping needs.
As the popularity of cryptocurrency grows, it is becoming increasingly beneficial for online merchants to accept it as a form of payment. But how do you start accepting crypto payments for your store? Bitcoin and altcoin payment gateways are the answer, as they take a lot of work out of the company’s hands and provide an out-of-the-box infrastructure that merchants can implement in their online marketplace.
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Our favorite crypto payments in general: NowPayments.io
NowPayments accepts many more cryptocurrencies besides Bitcoin, but among the most widely used Bitcoin payment gateways, it is the only one with volume fee discounts. With NowPayments commissions start at just 0.5% per transaction, but having 50 BTC equivalent in transaction volume in a month reduces it to 0.45%, with a further reduction to 0.4% when reaching the equivalent of 100 BTC.
NowPayments also accepts hundreds of other altcoins, giving users many different options when paying through a merchant using NowPayments and helping to push transaction volume up and reduce fees. Some of the other cryptocurrencies supported by NowPayments are: Cardano, Solana, VeChain, Avalanche, Shiba Inu and many more.
- NOWPayments is a completely non-custodial payment option for online merchants
- More than 50 different cryptocurrencies available for use with NOWPayments
- Makes it exceptionally easy to exchange between different crypto assets
- A very easy way to accept cryptocurrency payments online
Our favorite crypto payments for beginners: BitPay
One of the oldest bitcoin payment gateways, BitPay was founded in 2011. Although it started as a Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash payment gateway, BitPay has expanded, now supporting multiple coins and tokens including: BTC, DOGE, ETH, XRP, SHIB, USDC and more. BitPay charges a flat fee of 1% with no hidden fees for merchants to use its blockchain payment gateway.
BitPay is ideal for beginner merchants due to their longevity, ready-to-use tools, and merchant support. While other payment gateways on this list have slightly lower fees and accept more crypto assets, BitPay has a proven track record and has the information in place to help merchants set up crypto payments for their site with relative ease. In addition, BitPay supports a wide selection of fiat payments for payments.
Out preferred payments for Altcoins: Crypto.com Pay
Jumping into the mainstream with ads starring Matt Damon and LeBron James, along with sports partnership deals across the industry, Crypto.com’s Pay service is our preferred payment gateway for altcoins. This is not because it accepts the largest number of altcoins, as it only supports just over 30 (NowPayments supports a few hundred), but rather because there are no transaction fees or setup fees as long as you use the Crypto.com app.
This allows merchants to accept a variety of altcoin payments without having to worry about transaction fees. In addition, customers with a CRO share earn 10% cashback when buying and paying with Crypto.com Pay, meaning they will likely prefer to pay using Crypto.com Pay for rewards benefits. Merchants can attract altcoin buyers by having Crypto.com as a payment gateway.
Our favorite payments for Americans: Coinbase Pay
Based in San Francisco and compliant with U.S. regulatory laws, Coinbase Pay is our preferred payment gateway for American merchants. With a fixed fee of 1% and integration with Shopify, Coinbase Pay allows merchants to accept 7 different cryptocurrencies for payments on their sites. Payments are in cash or USDC.
Coinbase Pay also simplifies tasks by providing turnkey APIs for merchants, allowing them to set up and start using Coinbase Pay in minutes. The resources supported by Coinbase Pay are: BTC, LTC, ETH, BCH, DOGE, USDC and DAI. However, if you use the Coinbase Managed option (which holds your keys), you can only accept BTC, ETH, and USDC.
Our favorite payments for Europeans: Binance Pay
Not available in the UK, US, or Singapore, Binance Pay is our preferred choice for European clients. Binance Pay for Merchants has “the lowest transaction fees,” but Binance nowhere does it state what those fees are. Regardless, Binance Pay allows merchants to easily implement APIs, checkout pages, and provides other services such as an SDK to allow you to develop your payment experience using Binance Pay.
Binance Pay allows you to accept over 50 cryptocurrencies and stablecoins, with no user fees. Traders can choose which cryptocurrency they want to be paid in. When withdrawing payments from Binance there will be network fees to pay.
Our favorite payments for low commissions: CoinPayments
CoinPayments could have been included as some of our favorites, as they boast an impressive number of supported coins, have low fees for Bitcoin, and is available to merchants in almost every major country, including the United States. CoinPayments boasts a flat fee of 0.5% for all transactions and charges nothing but network fees. The first $15,000 in payments per month have no fees, so it starts at 0.5%. Picking up payments is solely a network fee and is quite low.
CoinPayments allows you to accept hundreds of coins and crypto tokens. Merchants have access to APIs, checkout pages, point-of-sale tools, and much more. They also offer a mobile app that lets you track your sales on the go.
Why Crypto Payments?
At the end of the day crypto payments are simply another way for people to pay you, which is generally not a bad thing.
The advantages of crypto payments are some of the following:
- Cheap (many cryptocurrency transactions cost only a few cents)
- Fast (cryptocurrencies are getting faster and faster with many settling in seconds)
- Better store of value (Fiat currencies are experiencing record inflation)
Of course there are also some disadvantages. Some of the older cryptocurrencies (such as Bitcoin and Ethereum) have relatively high transaction fees and can be slow. Fortunately, layer-2s or sidechains have helped with these issues, and platforms like the Lightning Network make BTC transactions relatively painless.
The other big drawback of cryptocurrency is that it is extremely volatile and a $100 payout in BTC could only be worth $75 by the end of the day. Of course it could also be worth $125, so if you’re willing to hold on to the long term it probably works.
