Like traditional online payments such as bank transfers, ACH, debit cards, or credit cards, if a business wants to accept Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency as a payment method, the merchant needs to incorporate crypto payments into the website or app. A crypto payment gateway facilitates the transaction of cryptocurrencies between the customer and the company and acts as an intermediary.
If your business sells products or services online through an e-commerce website or app, you probably already accept multiple payment methods. However, by adding crypto payments, you add a new method that many customers prefer.
Crypto payments have some significant benefits for both the customer and the merchant.
Advantages of accepting cryptocurrencies
- Low fees
- Global payments
- Global payouts
- Instant settlement; all transactions are on-chain settled instantly
- No chargebacks
- No rolling reserves
- No remittance fees
What is the role of a crypto payment gateway?
To understand a crypto payment gateway, we look at its role in the payment process. We take a typical e-commerce flow as an example. The customer adds the desired product to her basket, selects crypto as the preferred payment method, and enters the payment process.
The customer pays with the crypto wallet, and the crypto is transferred to the merchant’s wallet.
Sounds simple enough, isn’t it?
There are a few things to consider:
Simplicity
While the adoption of cryptocurrencies is growing, most consumers (and merchants) do not want to be bothered with the technical know-how to complete a blockchain transaction. A crypto payment gateway significantly improves the ease of completing a cryptocurrency transaction.
Crypto wallets
Crypto wallets allow consumers to send cryptocurrencies to a merchant, and the merchant to receive them. The crypto payment gateway connects the two parties. You can compare this to a bank account where you send and receive funds.
NEXUS offers native wallet infrastructure for major cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, Ethereum, Stellar, Algorand, and Ripple.
Security
To securely process crypto transactions, you need to have a robust and scalable platform that provides both the consumer and the merchant with a secure platform with the highest security standards to prevent fraud and counterparty risks.
The payment gateway is not only responsible for sending and receiving the funds but also for protecting sensitive consumer and merchant data.
Locking exchange rates between fiat money and crypto
As a merchant, you must receive the amount of crypto equivalent to your local fiat money. If you sell your product for $50, you want to receive the crypto equivalent. Therefore, the crypto payment gateway locks the price for the crypto for a short time so the consumer and the merchant pay and receive the correct crypto amount.
Price volatility
One thing that makes merchants question if they should accept cryptocurrencies is price volatility. These can vary significantly per week, day, or even hour. As a merchant, you do not want to risk losing 25% of the crypto value in a month.
Accepting cryptocurrency payments does not mean you need to hold them. If you want to avoid volatility, you can immediately exchange Bitcoin for fiat money.
Another option is to accept a Stablecoin like Tether because they offer price stability as they are pegged to a fiat currency. Stablecoins like Tether are giving merchants a low volatility solution compared to other cryptocurrencies — more information about Tether for merchants.
Instant clearing and settlement
Clearing transactions through traditional Payment Providers (PSP) can take up to five business days. Depending on the merchant’s business, conventional PSPs implement a rolling reserve of up to 30% of the gross value of the transaction, locking up funds up to 180 days before releasing the money to the merchants
Start accepting cryptocurrencies and save up to 80% on processing fees.
Chargebacks
Banks and payment providers implement rolling reserves because the bank does not want to be exposed to the financial risk of chargebacks or other liabilities of the merchant.
When a consumer disputes a transaction, the bank or payment provider can return the money without the merchant’s approval. Because crypto transactions are irreversible, there is no risk of chargebacks.
Crypto regulations
While legislation and regulation vary per country, the trend in all significant economic regions is that businesses processing cryptocurrencies must register as Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASP).
The reason why the crypto market is regulated is to protect financial systems against money laundering, terrorist financing, and the financing proliferation of weapons of mass destruction Banks and payment processors fulfill this gate watcher role in traditional payment processes.
The FATF Recommendations for crypto service providers are recognized as the global anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorist financing (CFT) standard.
Compliancy with AML/CFT legislation
Being compliant with regulations is one of the essential roles of a crypto payment gateway. As mentioned before, rules differ per region and are updated regularly. For example, the European Union moves from AMLD5 to AMLD6, and the outlines of the crypto regulation in the US are becoming more apparent, while Japan and Singapore have their own rules.
Crypto companies need to be up to date with regulations and enforce strict AML and CFT standards, including customer identification and ongoing risk-based due diligence monitoring.
NEXUS comes with a comprehensive set of tools for AML/CFT, customer compliance, and risk management.
Integration into your website or app
Using a crypto wallet and sending a payment link to your customer is not that hard, but it is challenging to integrate a crypto payment gateway into your online business. You need a system to manage consumers, create crypto addresses and transactions, check balances, maintain wallets, etc. With the NEXUS APIs, integrating crypto payments into your e-commerce platform becomes easier, and saves time and development costs.
How to accept crypto payments?
If you consider accepting crypto payments, Dicutech is a partner who understands the challenges of crypto payments and can help you. Our NEXUS platform has been operational since 2016 and has processed millions of transactions.
We believe in the crypto revolution and that cryptocurrencies should be available for all types and sizes of businesses.
There are multiple ways to accept crypto payments for payment service providers (PSPs), high-risk companies, and merchants.
If you are an individual business owner and don’t have the resources to implement a crypto payment gateway, we can introduce you to a NEXUS channel partner. Our partners are licensed VASPs and can help you to integrate crypto payments.
If you consider accepting crypto payments, contact us to discuss your business case.
Frequently asked questions
Is the NEXUS crypto payment gateway PCI DSS compliant?
PCI DSS is a security standard to protect customer data and is supported by major credit card companies. PCI DSS does not apply to transactions that do not use credit or debit cards.
That said, one of our core value propositions consists in making sure that our infrastructure responds to the highest levels of security, confidentiality, and availability. This is why we are very proud that we are ISAE 3402 Type 1 certified. ISAE 3402 is one of the most important international standards for companies in the financial sector. More information.
Does my company need a license?
There’s a good chance you’ll have to register your company to acquire a business license and other necessary operational permits. Your business location and industry will determine which licenses and permits you need.
Is it possible to integrate crypto payments into an existing web page or app?
Yes, it is possible to integrate crypto payments into an existing website or app. Contact us for the API documentation.
What cryptocurrences are supported?
NEXUS supports payment with Bitcoin, Tether, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, Algo and Lumen.
