The First Client Who Wanted to Pay in Crypto

A client asked to pay in crypto. Saying yes turned out to require six decisions I had not anticipated.

Decision one: which asset

They offered a volatile asset. I asked for a dollar stablecoin instead, because I invoice in euros and did not want a four percent move between issuing and payment to be my problem. What helped was finding a provider that states its terms. crypto acquiring for businesses does, and I used it as a yardstick.

They had some. Most business clients do.

Decision two: which network

I said the asset name and not the network, and they sent on one I could not receive.

Nine days and a support ticket to recover, with a fee. Now the network is on the invoice in full.

Decision three: who pays the network fee

They sent the invoice amount and their wallet deducted the fee, so I was short.

Not deliberate. The line that fixed it: network fees are payable by the sender, please send exactly the amount shown.

Decision four: what counts as close enough

I now accept anything within one percent or five euros, whichever is larger, without chasing.

Chasing three euros costs more than three euros, and there was no policy so the first shortfall became a conversation.

Decision five: convert or hold

Convert on receipt. I do not have crypto costs, so holding would be a position I did not decide to take.

I set up the conversion route before the first invoice and tested it with a small amount.

Decision six: what happens if they want a refund

Back to the address it came from. Always.

Sending to a different address requires me to be certain the request is genuine, which means verification, which means a process. Not worth improvising under pressure. Selling online raises a version of this, which ecommerce payment solutions with crypto settlement addresses.

What it saves

Their bank transfer would have cost about fifty euros in fees plus a currency margin, and taken four days.

This costs about a dollar in network fees plus a small conversion margin, and arrives in minutes.

For international clients it is not close.

What I tell clients now

The invoice has seven things on it: the euro amount, the crypto amount and rate, the network in full, the address, a deadline, the fee line, and a line saying other networks cannot be recovered. The thing I did not think about until it mattered was whether a provider you can actually reach exists. It is worth checking early.

It reads as excessive. Each item prevents something that actually happened to me.