Merchant payments

Why tokenise? i

Shops can now let customers pay in stablecoins through Stripe, Shopify and PayPal, alongside cards. The payment itself lands in seconds and can cost less than a card, especially for customers abroad. But few shoppers pay this way yet, and most merchants convert the coins straight back into ordinary money, so for most of them the gain today is a lower fee rather than faster cash.

Improves an existing process Paying a merchant is a solved problem: cards, wallets and bank transfers work well for most shoppers. Stablecoin acceptance adds another way to pay. The customer sends dollar-backed tokens such as USDC from a crypto wallet, and the payment provider usually converts them into the merchant's local currency. It mainly changes the price of a payment and who can pay, not how a shop runs.

The problem today

• Accepting cards costs merchants a percentage of every sale, and more when the customer's card is from abroad or a currency has to be converted.Stripe UK list prices: 1.5% + 20p for standard UK cards, 3.15% + 20p for international cards, plus 2% if currency conversion is needed^[1]
• Card money does not reach the merchant straight away. Funds become available after a settlement period, and payouts due on a weekend or holiday wait for the next business day.Standard settlement period of 2 business days for US Stripe accounts^[2]
• Selling abroad is expensive. PayPal says businesses lose billions every year in cross-border fees.^[3]
• Cards are the incumbent at enormous scale, so any alternative has to win over shoppers and merchants used to them.Visa alone: about $17 trillion of total payments and cash volume in fiscal 2025^[4]
• A card payment can be disputed after the sale. If the dispute turns into a chargeback, the money is taken back from the merchant's account.^[5]

Today vs tokenised (simplified)

End to end: about two business days to the merchant's bank; longer over weekends → seconds on the blockchain; often the same payout schedule once converted · speed only improves for merchants who keep the stablecoins or get faster payouts; most convert to local currency

Benefits · 6, of which 0 evidenced

Who it suits

Non-financial company, Fintech or technology firm · effort: low · one firm can get value on its own

• An online merchant using a payment provider that offers stablecoins, such as Stripe or Shopify Payments, in a supported country
• Accounting and tax treatment for stablecoin receipts, and a decision on whether to keep coins or convert them
• A refund process that can send coins back to a customer's wallet

Limits and open questions

• Few people pay this way. Stripe estimates that stablecoin payments worldwide were about $400 billion in 2025, roughly 60% of it between businesses, which leaves little for shop checkouts. Visa alone handled about $17 trillion of payments in a year.^[7]
• Stablecoins are still used mainly to move money in and out of crypto trading, and as a way to hold dollars in countries where that is hard. The BIS sees their wider use in payments as raising concerns rather than as current practice.^[8]
• Most merchants do not keep the coins. Shopify converts USDC into local currency by default and pays out on the merchant's existing schedule, and Stripe settles stablecoin payments into the merchant's balance in local currency.^[6]
• Availability is patchy. Stripe offers stablecoin acceptance generally only to US businesses, with the EU, Hong Kong, Mexico and Switzerland in private preview, and caps each customer payment at $10,000.^[5]
• PayPal's offer was announced in July 2025 for US merchants. It warned that crypto payments cannot be reversed once on the blockchain and that it did not yet have New York approval; we have not confirmed go-live.^[3]
• Stablecoins can trade slightly away from one dollar, and the BIS warns that their bearer-like nature makes them attractive for illicit use, which merchants' providers must screen for.^[8]