Until recently, crypto payments were deemed too volatile and complex for everyday commerce. But now, they’re almost ordinary: stablecoins move trillions of dollars a year, payment processors perform real-time crypto conversions, and customers use digital wallets as readily as they swipe credit cards.

Crypto payments have expanded what’s possible, bypassing borders and offering faster settlement and programmable money that moves quickly. In response, businesses are shifting their crypto focus from speculation to strategy.

Below, we’ll explain what crypto payments are, how they work, and how businesses can accept them responsibly.

What’s in this article?

• What are crypto payments?
  
• What are the benefits of accepting crypto payments?
  
• How can businesses start accepting crypto payments?
  
• How do customers use cryptocurrency for online transactions?
  
• Why do stablecoins matter for crypto payments?
  
• What legal and tax considerations apply to crypto payments?
  
• Frequently asked questions about crypto payments
  
• How Stripe Payments can help
  

What are crypto payments?

A crypto payment is a transaction made with a digital currency (e.g., Bitcoin, Ethereum, or stablecoins such as USDC) instead of dollars or other traditional currency. The customer sends funds from their digital wallet to a business’s wallet, and the transfer is recorded on a blockchain rather than processed through a bank or card network.

In the early days of crypto, this process was clunky, with long wallet addresses, manual conversions, and unpredictable price swings. Today, the process resembles any other online payment. Businesses can plug in a crypto option at checkout, often through a provider that handles wallet compatibility, dynamic currency conversion, and more.

Global crypto transaction volume topped $10.6 trillion in 2024, up more than 56% year over year, and the number of businesses accepting crypto has surpassed 15,000 worldwide. Stablecoins, which are pegged to another asset such as fiat currency, doubled in circulation in 18 months between 2023 and 2025. Along with faster networks, these stable-value currencies have turned crypto payments from a niche experiment into a standard digital commerce option.

What are the benefits of accepting crypto payments?

In 2024, stablecoin payments surpassed $5.8 trillion in transaction volume. This signaled a global shift toward faster, cheaper, and more open payment infrastructure. Businesses are coming on board to improve margins and reach new markets.

Here’s how crypto payments can benefit the businesses that use them:

• Reach new customers: Anyone with a smartphone and an internet connection can use cryptocurrency. This means businesses can sell into markets that traditional payment networks overlook, especially in regions where currencies are unstable or banking access is limited.

• Lower transaction costs across borders: Unlike unpredictable international card or wire transfer fees, stablecoin transfers typically cost a few cents, regardless of where your customer is. Crypto can make cross-border payments feasible for global businesses or those with tight margins.

• Get paid faster: Traditional payment settlements can take days, especially across currencies. Crypto transactions clear in minutes. Faster settlement means better cash flow.

• Eliminate chargeback risks: Crypto payments are one way: once confirmed, they can’t be reversed. This protects businesses from unexpected losses and chargeback fraud. (Voluntary refunds are possible when needed.)

• Expand globally with less friction: Crypto simplifies international commerce for businesses. A USDC payment from São Paulo settles the same as one from San Francisco, without currency conversion or banking delays. This makes it much easier for businesses to scale globally.

How can businesses start accepting crypto payments?

A few years ago, accepting crypto meant building wallets, keys, and conversions yourself. The infrastructure has since matured into easily adoptable options. Now, your main challenge is figuring out how crypto can fit into your business’s payment strategy.

Start with your audience

Some types of customers, such as travelers, creators, and developers, are more likely to hold cryptocurrencies. If you start accepting crypto, they’ll start paying with it. If your customer base is more local, adding a crypto option can signal that your business is modern and flexible.

Choose which currencies to accept

There are thousands of cryptocurrencies, but you need to accept only a few. Many businesses start with Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), or a stablecoin such as USDC, which is pegged to the US dollar. You can expand once you see what customers prefer to use.

Decide how you’ll accept it

There are a few ways to plug crypto in to your checkout flow:

• Use a payments provider such as Stripe. Stripe handles everything end-to-end, from on-chain processing to instant fiat conversion. Customers pay in crypto while you receive dollars.

• Use a crypto gateway. These offer checkout buttons or application programming interfaces (APIs) as well as the choice to automatically convert payments to fiat or keep the crypto.

• Accept payments into your own crypto wallet. This gives you total control—but also total responsibility for security and key management.

Plan for conversion and compliance

If you keep your crypto rather than converting it, remember to log the fair market value at the time of payment for tax reporting. Use strong security, such as multifactor authentication and cold storage for large balances. The same Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) rules that apply to any payment system apply to crypto.

How do customers use cryptocurrency for online transactions?

From the customer’s side, paying with crypto is like using any digital wallet. At checkout, the customer selects “Pay with crypto” in a payment method menu, connects a wallet, and approves the transaction. The system automatically calculates the amount due in their chosen currency (e.g., USDC, Bitcoin) and generates a QR code or payment link.

Once the customer confirms, the payment moves directly from their wallet to the business’s. The blockchain verifies the transaction in seconds, and both sides can see the confirmation immediately. That simplicity is why usage keeps climbing.

Why do stablecoins matter for crypto payments?

Stablecoins combine aspects of traditional money and crypto networks. Each fiat-backed token tracks the value of a reference currency (often the US dollar), such that 1 USDC equals $1.

Traditional crypto payments were limited by volatility. When Bitcoin could lose 10% of its value in an afternoon, it was difficult for businesses to treat it like real money. Stablecoins added dependability to the concept. A $100 invoice equals 100 USDC today, tomorrow, and next week, so pricing and accounting are straightforward.

Many businesses use stablecoins as a default settlement currency, combining dollar stability with crypto-level speed. Global stablecoin circulation climbed to $307 billion in November 2025, an annual growth of more than 50%.

What legal and tax considerations apply to crypto payments?

If you plan to start accepting crypto, there are important considerations to remember. The details vary by country, but the themes are consistent: treat crypto like money in practice and like property in accounting.

How it’s classified, and what to record

In the US, the UK, and much of Europe, regulatory bodies treat cryptocurrency and other digital assets as property, not currency. Each payment has a dollar value at the moment you receive it, which is your recorded income. If the crypto’s value changes before you convert or spend it, that change counts as a capital gain or loss.

Stablecoins make this simpler because their value stays steady. But you need to record the fair market value of each crypto payment, stable or otherwise, at the time you receive it. Then, track when you sell or convert it so you can declare any taxable gain or loss.

Regulation and compliance

If you’re just accepting crypto for goods or services, you typically aren’t considered a money transmitter. But if you hold or exchange funds on behalf of others, you might fall under additional financial regulations. Using a payments provider that automatically handles compliance layers, such as Stripe, can simplify accepting crypto payments.

Frequently asked questions about crypto payments

Is it legal to accept crypto as payment?

In most countries, including the US, businesses can legally accept cryptocurrency for goods and services. Crypto is treated as property rather than legal tender for tax purposes, which means you’re responsible for recording the dollar value of each transaction.

Are crypto payments secure?

Crypto is as secure as the systems you use. Blockchains are highly resistant to tampering, but poor wallet security or phishing can expose you to bad actors. Use a trusted payments provider or locked-down wallet to keep transactions safe.

Can customers reverse crypto payments?

No. Once a crypto payment is confirmed on-chain, it’s final. Businesses can issue refunds manually, but there’s no equivalent to a card chargeback.

What’s the best crypto wallet for businesses?

This depends on how hands-on you want to be. Payment providers such as Stripe handle all wallet management, while direct users often choose reputable custodial wallets or hardware wallets for larger balances.

How Stripe Payments can help

Stripe Payments provides a unified, global payments solution that helps any business—from scaling startups to global enterprises—accept payments online, in person, and around the world. Businesses can accept stablecoin payments globally that settle as fiat in their Stripe balance.

Stripe Payments can help you:

• Optimize your checkout experience: Create a frictionless customer experience and save thousands of engineering hours with prebuilt payment user interfaces (UIs), access to 125+ payment methods, including stablecoins and crypto.

• Expand to new markets faster: Reach customers worldwide and reduce the complexity and cost of multicurrency management with cross-border payment options, available in 195 countries across 135+ currencies.

• Unify payments in person and online: Build a unified commerce experience across online and in-person channels to personalize interactions, reward loyalty, and grow revenue.

• Improve payments performance: Increase revenue with a range of customizable, easy-to-configure payment tools, including no-code fraud protection and advanced capabilities to improve authorization rates.

• Move faster with a flexible, reliable platform for growth: Build on a platform designed to scale with you, with 99.999% historical uptime and industry-leading reliability.

Learn more about how Stripe Payments can power your online and in-person payments, or get started today.