How We Chose a Crypto Payment Provider

I started by comparing fees across five providers and wasted an evening, because three of them could not have worked for us at all. Comparing what I was offered against a crypto payment gateway with fiat settlement is what showed me the gap.

The question I should have asked first

Can you settle in euros, to a bank in our country, into an account in our company’s registered name.

Three could not do the third part. They could only pay to an account matching a verified individual, which is no use to a company.

That eliminated them before any other consideration, and it took one email to find out.

The second question

Do you guarantee the euro amount from the moment the payment is created, or do you convert when it arrives and pass me the result.

For us the guarantee matters. We sell at fixed prices and a two percent move can take most of the margin on a job.

Both remaining providers guaranteed it. Had one not, it would have been worth more than the fee difference between them.

The third question

Which assets, on which networks.

Not which assets. The network matters and a mismatch with where our clients hold funds generates a support conversation every time. Funds face the same question with more paperwork, which is where crypto rails built for fintech companies fits.

One supported the network most of our clients use. One did not.

That decided it, and I never got to a fee comparison.

What I would have compared, had it come to that

What a specific example payment costs end to end, in writing. A hundred euro invoice, in this asset, settled to a euro account.

The headline percentage is not the answer, because there is usually a conversion margin that is not on the pricing page.

The things I now know to ask about

What happens if the client underpays by a small amount, and can I configure a tolerance.

What happens if they pay after the payment window closes.

How refunds work, and whether you send them or I do.

How often you settle, and can it be daily.

Those four determine how much of my week this takes after launch.

The settlement frequency point

We asked for daily and got it without argument. It was not advertised.

At our volume that is roughly a day of revenue with the provider rather than a week, which matters both for cash flow and for what we would lose if they failed. Check it yourself rather than taking my word. an exchange that publishes its full terms is on a public register.

Nobody mentions this in comparisons and it took one sentence in an email to change.