Crypto Payment Solution Selection Criteria
As we previously mentioned, more and more crypto currency payment gateway offerings become available at the market. This trend is spurred by both merchants that accept cryptocurrency and platforms that provide crypto merchant services. At the same time, more and more companies are allowing customers to pay cryptocurrency for their respective commodities. So, demand for and offer of crypto payment gateway solutions go hand in hand.
Are you a merchant or a platform that wants to add cryptocurrency acceptance functionality to your offering? Well, it is an important strategic move, involving multiple benefits and challenges. Accepting cryptocurrency payments seamlessly calls for careful preliminary analysis of options and needs.
Finding an optimal crypto payment platform allowing smooth crypto deposits and withdrawals, and charging low transaction fees is not easy. Key reason: not all crypto currency payment processors, blockchains, and exchanges support all your potential target currencies. Now, let us move on to more detailed explanations.
Brief guidelines for merchants that accept cryptocurrency
How risky are your target currencies?
In general, investors and businesses deem crypto a highly volatile and risky instrument. Bitcoin, Ether, BNB, and other well-known currencies are all prone to sharp fluctuations. At the same time, stablecoins are immune to such fluctuations, as they are pegged to UDS rate. Examples of stablecoin-type currencies include USDT, DAI, BUSD, and others.
Presently, many blockchains operate at the market, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, BSC, Polygon, Avalanche, Fantom, and others. However, not all of them support stablecoin operations. For instance, Bitcoin, naturally, focuses on Bitcoin transactions. At the same time, Ethereum supports stablecoin transactions, but charges high gas fees for them.
The problem of high gas fees in crypto payment world
“Gas fees” is a common name used to define transaction fees in the crypto universe. Most purchases made using credit cards are low-ticket transactions. If you process a $30 credit card transaction, the fee amount charged by Visa/MC, probably, will not exceed $1. However, if you process a crypto payment worth $30 on a blockchain, the “gas fee” might amount to $50. This makes the price of low-ticket transactions completely prohibitive.
Now, do any blockchains charge less for crypto payment transactions than Ethereum? Yes, BSC, Fantom, Avalanche, and Polygon, indeed, have lower gas fees. But, as always the devil is hiding in the details. In this case, these details concern crypto to fiat conversion.
Want to det paid in crypto? Be ready to convert it to fiat!
In the crypto payment world multicurrency operations involve even more steps than in the world of credit card payments. Especially, when it comes to crypto to fiat conversion. So, if you want to implement a crypto payment solution, then you should know your target cryptocurrencies.
You can convert crypto to fiat using either a crypto card and a CEX (centralized exchange service). If you buy something with a crypto card, the payment amount equal to the price of the purchase is sold for fiat. If you operate through a CEX, then you operate through a special account or wallet (similar to other digital wallets). This wallet is used for crypto deposits and withdrawals, i.e. for crypto to fiat conversion.
Now, the problem is that an exchange support deposits and withdrawals on a particular blockchain only in a specific currency. And this is the currency, that blockchain uses to charge transaction fees. For instance, Ethereum charges gas fees in Ether, BSC – in BNB, Avalanche – in AVAX etc.
That is why conversion of stablecoins to fiat on most blockchains, except, probably, BSC, still costs a lot. Even if you manage avoid high gas fees during conversion, you’d still have to pay crypto sales transaction fees. These fees are, actually, similar to credit transaction fees.
Concluding remarks
Your choice of a crypto payment platform and blockchain(s) to partner with depends on several important factors. Primarily, they include your business model and target cryptocurrencies you want to support.
In the nearest time the need for crypto to fiat conversion will remain relevant. Crypto sales transactions have their price, and on some blockchains it is quite high. However, once crypto to fiat conversion becomes unnecessary, crypto payments might start competing with other payment methods.
You are welcome to contact us at unipaygateway.com if you need more information on the subject. And don’t hesitate to take a look at UniPay Gateway solution. It is an omni-channel crypto friendly payment gateway technology, already implemented by multiple companies worldwide.