Running an online store comes with plenty of invisible costs that rarely show up in any pitch deck. Payment processing fees, international markups, fraud management, chargebacks — they chip away at margins slowly and quietly. Crypto payments are increasingly entering that conversation, and not as a novelty. For e-commerce businesses willing to look at the numbers, the case is harder to dismiss than it used to be.
What Has Actually Changed
The crypto-in-business story used to be mostly theoretical. It is not anymore. In 2023, merchant adoption of crypto payments grew 55% year over year. By mid-2025, over 25 million merchants globally accepted at least one form of cryptocurrency, up from 18 million in 2023. For businesses without a technical team, platforms like gatewaycrypto.io make the integration straightforward, handling the blockchain layer so merchants can focus on the sale.
The setup is only half the equation, though. The more pressing question is whether the customer demand justifies it — and the numbers say yes. According to Triple-A, roughly 562 million people held crypto in 2024, and 65% said they want the option to pay with it at checkout.
The Hidden Cost of Card Payments
Traditional card processing fees sit between 1.5% and 3.5% per transaction, often with additional cross-border charges layered on top. For a business processing £20,000 a month, that is anywhere from £300 to £700 disappearing before a single overhead cost is counted.
The Chargeback Problem
Chargebacks are a particular pressure point for online merchants. When a customer disputes a transaction through their bank instead of contacting the merchant directly, the business loses not just the sale — it typically absorbs additional processing fees and admin time on top.
Subscription-based businesses face extra exposure here, since recurring billing is one of the most common chargeback triggers across e-commerce categories, often because customers forget they signed up or find cancellation unclear.
Crypto payments are irreversible by design: once a transaction is confirmed on the blockchain, no bank can reverse it, eliminating chargeback risk entirely for merchants.
Fees Add Up Faster Than Expected
Most crypto payment gateways charge around 1% per transaction, compared to the 1.5% to 3.5% typical of card processing — and that gap widens further once cross-border surcharges and currency conversion fees enter the picture. For any store with a meaningful share of international orders, the difference starts to matter at volume.
The Volatility Concern
Crypto volatility was a legitimate objection a few years ago, but two developments have largely answered it.
First, stablecoins — coins like USDT and USDC pegged to the US dollar — remove most of the volatility concern outright. A February 2026 McKinsey analysis conducted with blockchain analytics firm Artemis found that real-world stablecoin payment volume reached $390 billion in 2025, more than doubling from 2024 levels — a sign that businesses are actively using them, not just holding them speculatively.
Second, most modern gateways offer auto-conversion regardless of which crypto a customer pays with: the gateway converts it to fiat immediately and settles directly to the merchant’s bank account. The merchant never holds a volatile asset at all.
Who Is Actually Paying With Crypto?
The demand side of this question has two parts: what consumers want, and what merchants are already seeing at checkout.
On the consumer side, the FCA’s Cryptoassets Consumer Research found that 8% of UK adults held crypto that year. While that is down from 12% in 2024, average holdings per person rose, and awareness of crypto among UK adults remained at 91%. The base is smaller but more financially committed than a year ago, and it skews toward the 18 to 34 age group.
What that base does when given the option to pay is the other half of the picture. A January 2026 Harris Poll survey of 619 US retail and e-commerce payment decision-makers found that 88% of merchants had received customer enquiries about paying with crypto, and 69% said customers ask at least once a month. The survey covers US merchants, but the underlying dynamic — an existing crypto-holding audience actively looking for places to spend — applies equally to any online store with a similar customer profile.
Is It Worth It for a Small Online Business?
The strongest cases are businesses dealing with subscription billing, international customers, or a younger demographic. These three models see the clearest, most immediate gains — removing chargeback risk, cutting cross-border fees, and opening a checkout option for an audience that already holds crypto and wants to spend it.
The adoption decision is not about betting on crypto as an asset class. It is about recognising that the payment infrastructure has matured enough to offer concrete advantages over legacy card systems for the right business types.
The gap between customers who want to pay with crypto and merchants who have not yet set it up is real — and businesses that fit the profile should close it sooner rather than later.