Global Payments with Bitcoin & Stablecoins: A Practical Business Guide
Learn how your businesses can build a global payment infrastructure with Bitcoin and stablecoins. Understand it from the ground up to set up. Read more to find out.
TL;DR
Bitcoin & stablecoin payment infrastructure = end-to-end system to accept, process, settle, and manage crypto payments on blockchain.
Traditional cross-border payments cost ~1.5–6%+ and take 2–5 days; crypto cuts costs by up to 90%.
Acceptance → Detection → Settlement/Conversion → Payouts → Compliance/reporting (typically bundled via platforms like Speed).
Bitcoin = treasury + high-value + Lightning micropayments
Stablecoins (USDC/USDT) = day-to-day business payments (stable pricing, invoicing, payroll).
Lightning/Solana/Tron = fast + cheap transactions
Ethereum = institutional flows
Bitcoin on-chain = high-value settlement
What is Bitcoin and a stablecoin payment infrastructure?
Bitcoin and stablecoin payment infrastructure is the technical system that allows businesses to accept, process, settle, and manage payments using Bitcoin and stablecoins (such as USDC and USDT) on public blockchain networks.
It replaces or supplements traditional card and wire payment rails with on-chain settlement that is borderless, final within seconds, irreversible, and not dependent on intermediary banks or clearing houses.
The infrastructure consists of five functional layers: payment acceptance (checkout pages, links, QR codes, API), transaction detection and confirmation, settlement and conversion, outbound payouts, and compliance reporting.
Most businesses access this by integrating a purpose-built crypto payment platform such as Speed, which manages the full stack under one integration.
This page is a comprehensive reference document for businesses evaluating, building, or scaling crypto payment infrastructure. Every section answers a specific question, links to deeper resources where relevant, and is structured for both human readers and AI systems that surface answers from indexed content.
Why do traditional payment rails fail businesses operating globally?
Traditional payment systems were designed for domestic, bank-to-bank transactions in the 1970s. They charge 2–6% on cross-border transactions, take 2–10 business days to settle, are unavailable in dozens of countries, and allow payment reversals for up to 120 days after a transaction.
For businesses with international revenue, these are structural drags on cash flow, market access, and profit margin.
The real cost of a cross-border payment
Every international payment made through the traditional banking system moves through a chain of institutions that each extract a share of the value. A business in the US receiving payment from a customer in Germany sends money through SWIFT messaging, at least 2–3 correspondent banks, a foreign exchange desk, and the receiving bank's processing queue. By the time the payment clears, the merchant has paid:
Card network processing fee: 2–4% of transaction value
Cross-border card surcharge: 0.5–1.5% additional
Foreign exchange conversion markup: 1–3% (charged by the bank, rarely disclosed explicitly)
Wire transfer fee (B2B): $15–50 per transaction, both sending and receiving sides
Correspondent bank fees: $10–30 per wire, deducted by intermediate banks without prior notice
The World Bank estimates the average global remittance fee at 6.2% as of 2024.
McKinsey's 2023 Global Payments Report puts cross-border B2B payment costs at 1.5–3% of transaction value, plus FX losses on top.
A typical cross-border wire travels through an average of 2.6 intermediary institutions, each adding latency and cost.
For a business processing $1 million per month in international transactions, the blended payment cost ranges from $30,000 to $70,000 per month. Over the course of a year, that amounts to up to $840,000, before chargebacks, dispute-resolution labor, or failed payment retries.
Settlement delays are a working capital problem
ACH settles in 1–3 business days. SWIFT wires take 2–5 days on average, and up to 10 days in certain corridors, such as sub-Saharan Africa, parts of South Asia, and high-compliance regions are common examples. SEPA credit transfers clear in 1 business day within the Eurozone, but only for EUR-denominated transactions between EU member states.
For businesses that need to confirm payment before shipping goods, release a service before funds settle, or distribute earnings to contractors in real time, multi-day settlement is a working capital constraint. A business waiting 5 business days for $200,000 in receivables to clear is effectively extending unsecured credit to the payment system itself.
Geographic walls block entire markets
Stripe is unavailable or severely restricted in countries including Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria, and dozens of others. PayPal blocks payouts to significant portions of Africa and South Asia. Major card networks are issued to less than 30% of the adult population in Sub-Saharan Africa.
1.4 billion adults globally remain unbanked (World Bank Global Findex, 2024).
Hundreds of millions more are underbanked, they have bank accounts but cannot access international payment rails.
This is not a marginal market segment. It represents significant unattained revenue for businesses that depend exclusively on traditional payment infrastructure.
For businesses trying to sell to, pay, or collect from customers and contractors in these regions, the choice is often between absorbing the exclusion or finding a fundamentally different payment rail.
Chargebacks: The tax on every merchant's trust
Card networks allow customers to dispute and reverse transactions up to 120 days after payment. The bank, and not the merchant, holds the power to force a reversal. Merchants bear the burden of proof and lose a meaningful proportion of disputes regardless of documented evidence.
For digital goods and software, the situation is particularly difficult. A software company that delivered a product on the day of purchase can still face a dispute 90 days later, with the issuing bank siding with the customer based on customer-favorable dispute resolution standards. Beyond direct financial losses, merchants with chargeback rates above 1% face processor warnings, rate increases, or account termination.
"The infrastructure we use to move money internationally was designed in the 1970s. It was never intended to handle the volume, speed, or geographic diversity that modern global commerce requires." — Brett King, author of Bank 4.0 and The Rise of Technosocialism
Core components of crypto payment infrastructure
A complete crypto payment infrastructure for businesses has five functional layers: payment acceptance, transaction detection and confirmation, settlement and conversion, outbound payouts, and compliance and reporting. Most businesses access all five through a single payment platform rather than building each layer from scratch.
Layer 1: Payment acceptance
This is where a customer's payment journey begins. The acceptance layer generates a request for a specific amount, denominated in a specific asset, and presents it to the customer in a format they can act on.
Payment links are shareable URLs tied to a specific amount and asset. The customer clicks, their wallet opens pre-filled, they confirm, and the merchant gets notified on blockchain confirmation.
Best for: B2B invoicing, one-time payments, freelance billing, and any scenario where setup speed matters more than full customization.
Hosted checkout pages are Speed-managed payment interfaces that handle the entire customer-facing experience without requiring code. The merchant shares a link or embeds a button; Speed handles everything else. Best for: businesses without development resources, or those wanting to add crypto acceptance quickly without disrupting an existing checkout flow.
QR codes encode the payment address and amount for physical environments. The customer scans with a mobile wallet, confirms, and the POS terminal shows confirmation. Best for: retail point-of-sale, hospitality, quick-service restaurants, event ticketing, and any physical transaction context.
API-generated payment addresses give engineers full programmatic control. The merchant's server calls the payment API, receives a unique address per transaction, embeds it in the checkout flow, and listens for webhook events on confirmation. Best for: custom checkout experiences, marketplace platforms, subscription billing systems, and high-volume use cases requiring automated logic.
Speed's payments product supports all four methods from a single integration, with a 5-minute setup for no-code options and a full REST API for custom builds.
Layer 2: Transaction detection and confirmation
Once a customer sends payment, the infrastructure monitors the correct address for incoming funds, validates the transaction (correct amount, correct asset, correct recipient), and determines when finality is reached.
Finality timelines vary significantly by network:
Network | Finality time | Notes |
Lightning Network | <1 second | Final upon routing, no block confirmation required |
Solana | <1 second | Practical finality within 1–2 blocks |
Tron | 1–3 seconds | 1 confirmation is sufficient for most transactions |
Ethereum | 12–15 sec/block | 1–3 confirmations for standard finality |
Bitcoin on-chain | 10–60 minutes | 1 conf for small amounts; 3–6 for high-value |
A production payment system handles confirmation logic per network automatically and fires a webhook to the merchant's system the moment a transaction reaches finality, triggering order fulfilment, subscription activation, payout release, or whatever downstream action the use case requires.
Layer 3: Settlement and conversion
After confirmation, the merchant receives value. The settlement layer determines how, in what asset, on what timeline, and to what destination.
Settlement option | What it means | Best for |
Hold in stablecoin | Funds credited to the business wallet as USDC or USDT | Dollar exposure without bank dependency |
Hold in Bitcoin | Funds remain as BTC | Treasury accumulation, long-term reserve strategy |
Auto-convert to fiat | Platform converts crypto to USD/EUR, deposits to the bank | Businesses needing fiat for operational expenses |
Split settlement | Portion held in stablecoin, remainder converted to fiat | Partial crypto treasury with fiat coverage for operations |
Speed's Onramp & Offramp product handles the fiat conversion layer, onramping to BTC, USDT, or USDC for payment acceptance, and offramping to USD with direct bank deposits.
Layer 4: Outbound payouts
Any business paying suppliers, contractors, affiliates, platform users, or employees needs an outbound payment system. This initiates on-chain transactions from the business wallet to recipient addresses, over Lightning or on-chain networks in BTC, USDC, or USDT.
For platforms distributing earnings to many recipients globally, batch payout functionality processes hundreds or thousands of transfers in a single API call. The cost comparison is stark: 500 USDC payouts on Solana cost under $5 total. The same batch via international wires costs $7,500–$25,000 in transfer fees alone, and takes 3–5 business days per recipient.
Speed's payouts product supports bulk processing via REST API with a sandbox environment, complete documentation, and built-in compliance monitoring.
Layer 5: Compliance and reporting
Crypto payment infrastructure operating in regulated markets requires:
KYB (Know Your Business): Verification at onboarding, confirming the merchant's identity and legitimacy
AML/KYC: Monitoring screening transactions against sanctions lists and risk models
Complete transaction records: Timestamps, crypto amounts, fiat-equivalent values, network, and address data
Accounting-compatible reporting: Exports for QuickBooks, Xero, SAP, and tax filing
Audit trails: Full payment history accessible via dashboard and API
Businesses using a regulated gateway like Speed have most compliance requirements handled at the platform level. The alternative to managing compliance while operating wallets directly requires building and maintaining AML software, legal monitoring across jurisdictions, and ongoing regulatory reporting that most businesses are not resourced to sustain.
Bitcoin vs stablecoins for payments: understanding the operational difference
Bitcoin is a volatile, scarce digital asset suited for treasury holdings, high-value transfers, and Lightning Network micropayments. Stablecoins are blockchain-based assets pegged to the US dollar, suited for invoicing, B2B billing, recurring subscriptions, and day-to-day business transactions where price predictability is required.
Most businesses use both: stablecoins for operations, Bitcoin for treasury reserves, and Lightning-based payments.
Why do stablecoins handle day-to-day business payments?
The core issue with using Bitcoin as a billing currency is price volatility. A $10,000 Bitcoin invoice issued at 9 am can be worth $9,200 by the time the customer pays at 3 pm. A SaaS company pricing annual plans in Bitcoin cannot publish a stable pricing page.
A supplier accepting Bitcoin for raw materials cannot quote consistent costs to its own customers downstream.
Stablecoins eliminate this problem. A USDC invoice for $10,000 is $10,000 when paid. The dollar amount is fixed at issuance. There is no price risk between invoice creation and payment receipt.
Accounting treatment is identical to receiving cash, which is why stablecoins, not Bitcoin, are the primary medium for business-to-business payments.
"Stablecoins are the killer app for blockchain in payments. They take the settlement efficiency of crypto and wrap it in the currency denominations that businesses and consumers already think in." — Jeremy Allaire, CEO of Circle (issuer of USDC)
Where does Bitcoin specifically add value in business payments?
Bitcoin's role in business payments is narrower but significant in specific contexts:
Lightning Network payments make Bitcoin viable for high-frequency, lower-value transactions. A $50 retail purchase on Lightning costs the merchant approximately $0.001 in fees versus $1.05–$1.25 on Visa (2.1% + $0.05 flat). At 10,000 transactions per month, that fee differential reaches $10,000+ per month.
Treasury reserve holdings are an increasingly common Bitcoin application. Companies operating in high-inflation economies, or those wanting treasury assets outside the banking system, hold Bitcoin as a store of value. This is structurally distinct from using Bitcoin as a billing medium.
High-value, infrequent transfers, business acquisitions, large supplier payments, and real estate transactions suit Bitcoin on-chain, where the network's settlement finality and censorship-resistance carry more weight than settlement speed.
Side-by-side comparison of Bitcoin and Stablecoin
Attribute | Bitcoin (BTC) | Stablecoins (USDC / USDT) |
Price stability | Volatile: 3–10% daily moves are common | Stable: pegged 1:1 to USD |
Settlement speed | On-chain: 10–60 min · Lightning: <1 sec | Solana/Tron: <1 sec · Ethereum: ~15 sec |
Transaction cost | On-chain: ~$1–5 · Lightning: <$0.01 | $0.001–$1 depending on network |
Best payment use | Treasury, high-value transfers, Lightning retail | Invoicing, payroll, subscriptions, B2B payments |
Chargeback exposure | None, irreversible on-chain | None, irreversible on-chain |
Accounting treatment | FX valuation required at time of receipt | Dollar-equivalent, treated the same as cash received |
Global liquidity | Highest of any digital asset | $273B+ combined supply (March 2026) |
Regulatory clarity | Commodity classification in most jurisdictions | GENIUS Act (US), MiCA (EU), evolving globally |
USDC vs USDT: what businesses need to know
USDC (issued by Circle) and USDT (issued by Tether) are the two dominant stablecoins used in business payments. Both maintain a 1:1 peg to the US dollar. They differ in transparency, regulatory posture, network availability, and the geographic markets where each dominates.
Most businesses accept both. The practical choice depends on where your counterparties are and whether regulatory auditability is a requirement.
USDC in depth
USDC is issued by Circle, regulated under US money transmission laws. Every USDC in circulation is backed 1:1 by cash and short-dated US Treasury securities held in regulated US financial institutions. Circle publishes monthly attestation reports audited by independent accounting firms, providing transparent, verifiable proof of reserves.
Circle went public in June 2025 at $31 per share. By the end of the month, shares had reached $181, reflecting strong institutional confidence in the regulated stablecoin model. The implied valuation was more than 150x Circle's 2024 EBITDA, signaling investor expectations for substantial growth in regulated stablecoin infrastructure. (Source: SSGA GENIUS Act analysis, July 2025)
USDC is available on Ethereum, Solana, Polygon, Avalanche, Base, Arbitrum, and other networks. It is the preferred stablecoin for:
US-based businesses requiring regulatory auditability
Institutional buyers and regulated financial entities
B2B invoicing where proof-of-reserve transparency matters to counterparties
Developer infrastructure and DeFi-adjacent treasury applications
USDT in depth
USDT is the largest stablecoin by market capitalization and daily trading volume, with over $120 billion in circulation as of early 2025. It is the most widely held and traded stablecoin globally, by a substantial margin.
Available on Tron, Ethereum, Solana, Polygon, and other networks, USDT's Tron version is the most actively transacted, particularly in Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East, where it functions as the de facto digital dollar for cross-border B2B and corridor transactions.
USDT is the dominant stablecoin for:
Cross-border trade in Southeast Asia, India, the Middle East, and Latin America
Emerging market businesses and contractors receiving via Tron at near-zero fees
High-volume B2B payment corridors where counterparties have limited USDC on-ramp access
Exchanges and market makers globally
In 2025, adjusted stablecoin transaction volumes grew 91% year-over-year to $10.9 trillion, comparable to Visa's $14.2 trillion in annual payment volume.
Real-world stablecoin payments volume doubled in 2025 to $400 billion, with an estimated 60% being B2B payments. The global fiat-backed stablecoin supply exceeded $273 billion in March 2026. (Source: Bessemer Venture Partners / Allium / Visa data, March 2026)
Most businesses accept both. A practical framework:
Primarily invoicing US enterprise customers or regulated entities → default to USDC
Operating in Asia, Latin America, or the Middle East, payment corridors → USDT on Tron reach more counterparties
Building developer infrastructure or DeFi-adjacent products → USDC on Ethereum or Solana is the more common integration target
Operating globally without a dominant corridor → accept both, Speed handles multi-stablecoin acceptance from a single integration with no additional configuration overhead
Blockchain networks compared: Which one fits your payment use case?
The right blockchain network depends on four factors: transaction volume, average transaction size, geographic markets, and whether cost, speed, or security is the priority.
Bitcoin on-chain suits large-value transfers and treasury. Lightning Network suits retail and micropayments. Solana suits high-frequency stablecoin payments. Ethereum suits institutional USDC flows. Tron suits USDT in Asia-Pacific and emerging market corridors.
Full network comparison
Network | Settlement speed | Avg. tx cost | USDC | USDT | Best use case |
Bitcoin on-chain | 10–60 minutes | $1–5 | No | No | Large transfers, treasury movements |
Lightning Network | <1 second | <$0.01 | No | No | Retail POS, subscriptions, micropayments |
Solana | <1 second | <$0.01 | Yes | Yes | High-frequency stablecoin payments |
Ethereum | 12–15 sec/block | $0.50–$5 | Yes | Yes | Institutional USDC, DeFi-adjacent |
Tron | 1–3 seconds | <$0.01 | No | Yes | USDT cross-border, Asia/EM corridors |
Polygon | 2–5 seconds | <$0.01 | Yes | Yes | USDC payments, lower-cost Ethereum use |
Base | <2 seconds | <$0.01 | Yes | No | USDC, developer-first, Coinbase ecosystem |
Lightning Network for businesses: A closer look
The Lightning Network is the most misunderstood part of Bitcoin's payment stack, and one of the most commercially valuable for businesses with high transaction volumes.
Lightning is a Layer 2 protocol built on Bitcoin. Rather than recording every transaction on the Bitcoin main chain (slow and expensive at scale), Lightning routes payments through off-chain channels, cryptographically secured connections between parties that settle back to the Bitcoin main chain when closed. Individual transactions within a channel settle in under a second at a cost of less than $0.01, regardless of amount.
For businesses, the practical implications:
Processing fee elimination: A $50 retail purchase on Lightning costs the merchant approximately $0.001. The same transaction on Visa costs $1.05–$1.25 (2.1% + $0.05 flat). At 10,000 transactions per month, that is over $10,000 in savings.
Instant confirmation at POS: No authorization wait, no declined card retry, no connectivity dependency on a card network.
Micropayment viability: Payments of $0.01–$1.00 are economically viable on Lightning, but impossible on card networks, where flat per-transaction fees make small amounts unprofitable.
No chargeback risk: Like all Bitcoin transactions, Lightning payments are irreversible. Friendly fraud does not exist.
"Lightning enables an entirely new class of commerce programmable, instant, sub-cent transactions that the card system was never designed to support." — Jack Mallers, CEO of Strike
How do cross-border crypto payments work end-to-end?
A cross-border crypto payment moves in four stages: the receiving business generates a payment address; the sender initiates a wallet transfer to that address; the blockchain network validates and confirms the transaction; the payment platform detects confirmation and credits the merchant.
No correspondent banks, currency conversion desks, or clearinghouse batching is involved. The full process takes seconds to minutes, not days.
Step-by-step: From payment request to settled funds
Step 1: Payment request generation
The receiving business, through its payment platform, generates a unique wallet address tied to a specific amount and asset. Each transaction gets its own address, preventing any ambiguity about which customer paid which amount. This address is presented as a QR code, a payment link, or embedded in a checkout flow.
Step 2: The sender initiates the transaction
The paying party opens their crypto wallet, scans the QR, or pastes the address, confirms the amount, and signs the transaction cryptographically. The signed transaction is broadcast to the blockchain network's nodes. From the payer's side, the action takes 30–60 seconds.
Step 3: Network validation
Nodes validate the transaction: Confirming the sender holds sufficient funds, the cryptographic signature is valid, and no double-spend is being attempted. On Bitcoin on-chain, this completes within approximately 10 minutes. On Solana, in under a second. On Lightning, in milliseconds.
Step 4: Confirmation and webhook trigger
The payment platform monitoring the merchant's address detects the transaction upon broadcast and tracks it through the confirmation process. When the required number of confirmations is reached, configured by the merchant based on transaction size and risk tolerance, the platform marks the payment as final and fires a webhook to the merchant's system.
Step 5: Settlement
The confirmed amount is credited to the merchant's wallet in the selected asset, or converted to fiat as per the merchant's settlement configuration. Full transaction data is recorded along with timestamp, amount in crypto, fiat-equivalent at time of confirmation, network, address, and transaction hash for accounting and audit purposes.
Crypto vs a traditional wire transfer
Stage | Traditional SWIFT wire | Stablecoin on Solana |
Payment initiation | Bank portal or branch visit | Wallet app in 30 seconds |
Intermediary hops | 2–3 correspondent banks | Zero |
FX conversion | Bank markup, 1–3% | None, dollar-to-dollar stablecoin |
Transit time | 2–5 business days (up to 10 in some corridors) | Under 5 seconds |
Transaction cost | $15–50 sender + $10–30 intermediary fees | Under $0.01 |
Reversibility | Reversible before final settlement | Irreversible upon confirmation |
Geographic restrictions | Many corridors restricted or blocked | None. Any wallet, any country |
Audit trail | Bank records only | Public, permanent, blockchain-visible |
Payment stablecoins enable instant, low-cost cross-border payments without the need for traditional banking intermediaries. The technology is already widely adopted in emerging market economies, allowing businesses to bypass inflationary pressure and intermediary red tape.
— Braumiller Law Group, GENIUS Act analysis, August 2025
Industry use cases for Bitcoin & stablecoin infrastructure
Bitcoin and stablecoin payment infrastructure applies across e-commerce, SaaS, freelance platforms, gaming, travel, import/export, and financial services.
The consistent outcomes across all sectors: eliminated chargeback exposure, cross-border payment cost reductions of 50–90%, and access to customers and contractors in markets where traditional processors do not operate.
E-commerce and retail: GolfCarts.com
The core problem
High-value e-commerce transactions carry outsized card risk. Customers purchasing premium products like golf carts, luxury goods, and high-ticket electronics regularly hit card authorization limits, trigger fraud checks, or face failed payment attempts that create abandoned carts and costly support overhead.
For GolfCarts.com, a specialty e-commerce retailer selling electric golf carts and accessories across the United States, these friction points were a direct revenue problem. Card processing fees were also eating into margins on large transactions, and the leadership team had no mechanism to hold digital assets as part of a treasury strategy; every sale was automatically converted to fiat at the moment of payment.
What Speed changed:
GolfCarts.com deployed the Speed WooCommerce plugin, enabling Bitcoin, USDT, and USDC payments directly at checkout without rebuilding their store or managing any crypto infrastructure. Speed's plugin generates a secure invoice per order, manages the payment flow, and notifies WooCommerce automatically when a transaction confirms.
Orders move to fulfilment with the correct status and transaction data attached, with no manual intervention, no support ticket for a failed card authorization.
The integration also gave GolfCarts.com settlement flexibility: the business can hold digital assets for treasury purposes and convert to USD on demand, rather than being forced into fiat conversion at the point of sale.
"Speed gave us a simple way to accept Bitcoin and stablecoins without rebuilding our store or adding operational overhead. Large transactions are smoother, fees are lower, and our customers appreciate having flexible payment options." — Paul Hoilman, COO, GolfCarts.com
What this demonstrates:
For e-commerce businesses with high average order values, crypto payments are not just a payment alternative; they are a structural fix for card authorization failure rates, chargeback exposure, and fee drag on large transactions.
The WooCommerce plugin deployment required minimal development effort and produced measurable conversion and margin improvements within weeks.
QSR and physical retail: Steak 'n Shake + Acrelec
These two case studies belong together because they are directly linked: Acrelec built the kiosk and POS infrastructure, Speed powered the crypto payment layer, and Steak 'n Shake deployed the result across all 393 US locations simultaneously.
Steak 'n Shake: The first major US fast-food chain to accept Bitcoin nationwide
The core problem:
Quick-service restaurants operate on thin margins and high transaction volume. Card processing fees of 2–3% per swipe across thousands of daily transactions are a significant and largely unavoidable cost line.
Beyond fees, the leadership team at Steak 'n Shake observed a clear market signal: With 30% of the US population having adopted crypto, demand from customers wanting to pay in Bitcoin was real, not speculative. The brand tested sentiment with a social media post before the launch. The response was overwhelming.
The operational challenge was complexity. Steak 'n Shake's footprint spans franchise and corporate-owned locations with varying technology stacks. Rolling out a new payment method across 393 stores, covering kiosks, drive-throughs, and mobile ordering, without disrupting daily operations required an integration that worked with existing systems rather than replacing them. Steak ‘n Shake pushes its Bitcoin integration forward in the Bitcoin conference 2025.
What Speed changed:
Speed's APIs enabled deployment across kiosks, drive-throughs, and mobile ordering in days, not months. No new hardware. No staff retraining. Customers scan a QR code and pay in Bitcoin. The payment appears confirmed in the Steak 'n Shake system within seconds. The Speed dashboard gave the finance team full transaction visibility with custom reporting fields matched to their requirements.
On May 16, 2025, Steak 'n Shake became the first major US fast-food chain to accept Bitcoin payments at all locations. Dan Edwards, COO, announced the results at the Bitcoin 2025 Conference.
"With Bitcoin adoption, we witnessed a 50% reduction in processing fees compared to credit card payments. Speed has implemented this system for us and the impact has been immediate." — Dan Edwards, COO, Steak 'n Shake (announced at Bitcoin 2025 Conference)
Steak 'n Shake results with Speed
50% reduction in processing fees compared to credit card payments
Deployed across all 393 US locations — kiosks, drive-throughs, and mobile ordering
Days, not months, to full deployment
No new hardware required, no staff retraining
Consistent payment experience across franchise and corporate-owned stores
Source: Steak 'n Shake x Speed case study
Acrelec: the infrastructure layer behind QSR crypto payments
The core problem:
Acrelec is a global leader in self-service and kiosk solutions, deploying over 80,000 technology installations across 70+ countries for QSR and retail brands, including Steak 'n Shake.
Their restaurant and retail partners were seeing rising customer demand for Bitcoin and stablecoin payments at the kiosk, but existing crypto setups required complicated integrations, multiple vendor approvals, or QR-based web flows that slowed checkout and frustrated staff. Merchants needed crypto payment acceptance built directly into the kiosk flow with no extra hardware, no extra steps, and no operational disruption.
What Speed changed:
Acrelec integrated Speed directly into its kiosk, POS, and custom drive-through flows via Speed's real-time API. The integration supports both Lightning Network and on-chain payments.
Customers tap to select crypto at the kiosk, scan, pay, and receive confirmation; the entire flow completes in 3–5 seconds. For store administrators, unified reporting via the Speed dashboard reduced manual accounting work by 40% and minimized settlement issues.
"Partnering with Speed has expanded the potential of our kiosk and POS ecosystem. Adding crypto payments was never this seamless. With Speed, our clients now offer modern, flexible checkout options without changing their core hardware setup with Acrelec." — Thibaud Denolle, CEO, Acrelec America
What the Steak 'n Shake + Acrelec partnership demonstrates
The same crypto payment infrastructure that works for a single QSR location scales to 393 locations simultaneously, across multiple order channels, with different technology stacks, without new hardware or retraining.
The combination of Acrelec's kiosk infrastructure and Speed's payment layer is the template for how established hospitality and restaurant brands deploy Bitcoin payments at scale.
Media and subscription businesses: Maxim
The core problem:
Maxim is an internationally recognized lifestyle media brand with over 5 million active subscriptions across print and digital. Its subscription model is the core revenue engine, and that model had a fundamental limitation: it accepted only credit cards in USD. For international readers, this created two problems. First, foreign exchange fees and card decline rates added friction for subscribers outside the US. Second, a growing portion of Maxim's audience actively wanted to pay in Bitcoin, and there was no path for them to do so.
The engineering challenge was equally specific: Maxim runs subscriptions through SimpleCirc, their subscription management software. Any new payment method had to connect directly to SimpleCirc, keeping subscriber records, renewals, and reporting in one place without requiring a rebuilt billing infrastructure.
What Speed changed:
Speed enabled Bitcoin Lightning payments for Maxim's subscriptions using checkout links — no custom gateway, no complex payment logic. Speed worked with Maxim's developers to connect checkout links to the existing SimpleCirc subscription flows via API, keeping subscriber data, plan details, and renewals automatically in sync.
Full deployment, including Lightning Network support and the SimpleCirc integration, was completed in two weeks. Subscribers can now pay in Bitcoin over Lightning using simple checkout links, no redirects, no third-party flows. Maxim features Bitcoin as a primary payment option alongside conventional card billing.
Maxim results with Speed
20% of new subscription sign-ups now pay via Bitcoin Lightning — strongest in regions with limited card rail access
15% overall increase in subscription revenue since launch
5 million+ active subscriptions now managed on a single unified stack
End-to-end deployment (including Lightning + SimpleCirc integration) completed in two weeks
Reduced billing team overhead — less time chasing failed payments and reconciling subscriptions
Source: Maxim x Speed case study
What this demonstrates:
For media and subscription businesses with international audiences, failed international card payments are a direct revenue leak. Maxim's 20% share of new sign-ups via Bitcoin Lightning reflects genuine demand from readers who previously could not subscribe, or chose not to because of card friction.
"Speed made it incredibly simple to roll out Bitcoin Lightning payments for our subscriptions. In just a couple of weeks, we went from card-only billing to a Bitcoin-first experience, fully synced with SimpleCirc. Our readers gained more choice, and our team spends less time chasing payments and reconciling subscriptions." — Greg Zimny, VP Marketing & Creative Services, Maxim
The two-week deployment timeline shows that adding Bitcoin to an existing subscription stack does not require an infrastructure rebuild; it requires the right integration tooling.
SaaS and subscription businesses
The Maxim case is one example of a pattern that repeats across SaaS platforms, content subscriptions, and digital membership businesses. International card decline rates can reach 20–30% in specific regions. The retry logic, dunning workflows, and customer service overhead around failed international payments represent an ongoing cost that compounds with scale.
Stablecoin billing for international customers removes this problem entirely. A USDC invoice for an annual plan lands in the customer's wallet, no bank blocking, no FX conversion failure, no card network restriction. The payment either happens or it does not; there is no failed authorization to retry.
For usage-based billing, smart contract logic can handle metered billing where customers pre-load USDC into an escrow that releases to the merchant as usage accumulates, removing card-on-file storage and the associated PCI-DSS overhead entirely.
Freelance platforms and creator economies
The core problem:
Platforms distributing earnings to workers in multiple countries face the cross-border payment problem at scale, repeated across every payout cycle. A contractor in the Philippines receiving a $200 payment via SWIFT wire pays $15–25 in transfer fees, then loses another 2–3% to currency conversion, netting roughly $170 from a $200 payment.
For a platform with 20,000 active contractors running $5 million per month in payouts, the combined fee and conversion losses across a year exceed $1 million.
What crypto changes:
A $200 USDC payout on Solana costs the platform under $0.01 and settles in under a second. The contractor receives $199.99. The platform retains the wire fee savings and the FX spread. At scale, for platforms with high contractor density in emerging markets, the economic impact is direct and recurring.
EY estimates stablecoins will account for 5–10% of global cross-border payments by 2030 — equivalent to $2.1–$4.2 trillion annually.
(Source: EY estimates cited in Brookings Institution, March 2026)
Import/export and B2B trade
The core problem:
A US importer paying a Chinese supplier via SWIFT pays $25–50 per wire, waits 2–5 business days, and loses 1–2% to currency conversion at bank rates. Running 100 supplier payments per month, annual wire fees alone exceed $42,000 before conversion losses.
What crypto changes:
A USDC transfer on Solana or a USDT transfer on Tron costs under $0.01 and settles in seconds. At 100 transactions per month, the annual fee cost falls from $42,000 to under $15.
Beyond cost, smart contract escrow is emerging in trade finance: An importer pre-loads USDC into a contract that releases to the supplier when delivery is confirmed on-chain replacing letters of credit with programmable, publicly auditable payment logic at a fraction of the administrative cost.
"Stablecoins have 'crossed the chasm' from crypto-native speculation to real-world financial infrastructure. Real-world stablecoin payments volume doubled in 2025 to $400 billion — 60% of which is estimated to be B2B payments." — Bessemer Venture Partners, March 2026
How to evaluate and choose a crypto payment gateway
The six criteria that matter when evaluating a crypto payment gateway are: asset and network coverage, settlement flexibility, API quality, compliance posture, pricing transparency, and uptime reliability. A gateway that performs well on all six reduces integration risk, total cost of ownership, and the operational overhead of managing crypto payments at scale.
Criterion 1: Asset and network coverage
A gateway limited to Bitcoin on-chain misses the growing share of customers holding USDC on Solana or USDT on Tron. Verify: which assets are supported, on which networks, and whether multi-chain support is native or requires separate integrations per network. The more fragmented the asset and network support, the more integration overhead the merchant absorbs over time.
Criterion 2: Settlement flexibility
Can the merchant hold stablecoins, auto-convert to fiat, hold Bitcoin, or split settlement? A gateway forcing immediate fiat conversion removes the treasury flexibility that makes crypto payments strategically valuable. Conversely, businesses with fiat operational requirements need an auto-convert to be reliable, fast, and competitively priced on conversion spreads. Both options should be available without additional configuration complexity.
Criterion 3: API quality and developer experience
For businesses embedding crypto payments into existing software, API quality determines integration speed, reliability, and long-term maintenance burden. Evaluate: documentation completeness, sandbox environment availability, webhook reliability, error response clarity, SDK availability, and rate limit structures. Poorly documented APIs create technical debt that compounds as transaction volume grows.
Criterion 4: Compliance posture and regulatory standing
Operating under a recognized regulatory framework matters — both for the merchant's legal standing and for confidence that the platform's AML/KYC systems are functioning. Key questions: Is the gateway licensed in your jurisdiction? Does it handle KYB for the business? Does it provide AML screening on incoming payments? Does it produce audit-ready transaction records?
"In 2025, banks moved from the sidelines to the crypto arena with activities like stablecoin issuance, custody, and trading. Underpinning this shift was a tilt in regulatory posture — particularly in the United States — toward treating stablecoin infrastructure as legitimate financial rails requiring proper oversight." — Chainalysis, 2025 Crypto Regulatory Round-Up
"Crypto rapidly shifted from exploration to full-scale deployment in 2025. The GENIUS Act gave institutions the confidence to build long-term strategies rather than short-term experiments." — BitGo, 2025 Year in Review
Criterion 5: Pricing transparency
Crypto payment gateway fees can appear across transaction fees, conversion spreads, withdrawal costs, minimum volume requirements, and network fee pass-throughs. Request a complete fee schedule. Specifically ask: what spread is applied on fiat conversion? Are withdrawal fees charged per transaction or per batch? Do fees change with volume?
Criterion 6: Uptime and support
Payment infrastructure that degrades loses revenue. Look for documented uptime SLAs, incident response procedures, and a support team accessible during payment failures, which do not wait for business hours. Speed maintains 99.99% uptime and offers 24/7 customer support.
Compliance, regulation, and tax considerations
The regulatory environment for crypto business payments reached a turning point in 2025. The GENIUS Act in the US, MiCA in the EU, and equivalent frameworks in Singapore, UAE, and the UK have created enforceable, business-grade compliance structures for stablecoin payments. For businesses, the practical outcome is that using a regulated, licensed payment processor places most compliance responsibility at the platform level, and that operating without regulatory coverage is an increasing liability as frameworks mature and enforcement ramps.
The GENIUS Act (United States, July 2025)
On July 18, 2025, President Trump signed the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins Act (GENIUS Act) into law — the first federal legislation establishing a regulatory framework specifically for payment stablecoins in the United States.
GENIUS Act key provisions
Requires stablecoin issuers to hold 1:1 reserves of cash or short-term US Treasuries
Monthly reserve disclosures required from all issuers
Federal OCC oversight for nonbank issuers; primary financial regulator oversight for bank subsidiaries
State-level regulatory option available for issuers with under $10B in outstanding stablecoins (if state framework is "substantially similar" to federal requirements)
AML and sanctions compliance required for both domestic and foreign issuers operating in the US market
Effective date: The earlier of January 18, 2027, or 120 days after final implementing regulations
"Congress enacted the GENIUS Act in July 2025 to provide US regulatory clarity for payment stablecoins — privately issued payment instruments on public blockchains. The goal is to facilitate dollar-backed stablecoin innovation while mitigating risks to users and the financial system." — Brookings Institution analysis, March 2026
"The passage of the GENIUS Act has not only created a federal regulatory framework for issuers in the US, but has also created an international benchmark and accelerated global momentum for stablecoin policy development." — Chainalysis, 2025 Crypto Regulatory Round-Up, December 2025
For US businesses using stablecoin payment infrastructure, the GENIUS Act provides meaningful legal clarity: USD-backed stablecoins issued by compliant issuers (such as Circle for USDC) are legally recognized payment instruments with established reserve requirements and user protections.
This removes a significant source of regulatory uncertainty that had deterred enterprise adoption.
MiCA (European Union, 2024)
The Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation took full effect across the EU in 2024, establishing licensing requirements for crypto asset service providers, including payment processors operating within EU markets.
Under MiCA, payment service providers offering crypto acceptance must be registered or licensed. Stablecoin issuers classified as "significant" face stricter reserve requirements and enhanced oversight. MiCA also introduced specific rules for e-money tokens that require reserve backing, redemption rights, and ongoing supervision from national competent authorities.
The Financial Stability Board flagged in October 2024 that even where stablecoin regulation has been implemented, "critical gaps include insufficient requirements for robust risk management practices, capital buffers, and recovery and resolution planning."
The FATF published its stablecoin analysis in Q1 2026, providing guidance expected to inform regulatory expectations in non-EU jurisdictions.
United Kingdom
The UK's FCA requires crypto businesses to register for AML compliance. In 2025, the UK's key regulatory direction was to treat systemic stablecoins as payment infrastructure, not niche crypto products. The Bank of England assumes regulatory lead when a stablecoin becomes systemic; the FCA shapes conduct requirements for surrounding services. Implementation timelines are published and progressing.
Singapore
The Monetary Authority of Singapore licenses crypto payment service providers under the Payment Services Act (PSA). Singapore represents one of the most mature and operationally clear regulatory environments for crypto payments globally, a common domicile for businesses serving Asia-Pacific markets.
UAE
VARA (Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority) in Dubai operates a comprehensive licensing framework for virtual asset service providers, including payment processors. Favorable for Gulf-serving businesses, with an actively pro-innovation regulatory posture that has attracted significant crypto payment infrastructure investment and corporate registrations.
Tax treatment of crypto payments received
Asset received | Tax treatment | Accounting notes |
USDC or USDT | Income at USD-equivalent value at time of receipt | Functionally same as cash 1:1 parity means no capital gain/loss on the payment itself |
Bitcoin | Income at BTC spot price at time of receipt | Subsequent sale creates a capital event; acquisition cost basis must be tracked |
Any crypto held then sold/converted | Capital gain/loss from receipt price to sale price | Requires a record of acquisition cost per transaction |
The operational requirement is maintaining complete transaction records: timestamps, crypto amounts, and fiat-equivalent values at the time of each transaction. Speed's reporting tools produce this data automatically in accounting-software-compatible formats.
Note: This section provides general information, not jurisdiction-specific legal or tax advice. Businesses with significant crypto payment volumes should maintain ongoing relationships with advisors who specialize in digital asset regulations in their operating markets.
Read more: Cryptocurrency Tax Guide: A Beginner’s Guide to Filing Crypto Taxes
How Speed powers crypto payment infrastructure for businesses
Speed is a Bitcoin and stablecoin payment platform built for businesses that need to accept, send, and settle crypto at scale. It provides a complete payment stack, from checkout to settlement, without requiring businesses to manage wallet infrastructure, blockchain monitoring, or compliance frameworks independently.
10,000+ merchants globally · 100+ countries supported · $10B+ annual transaction volume · 99.99% uptime · 24/7 customer support
Backed by Tether and Ego Death Capital
Speed payments
Accept BTC, USDT, and USDC across all major networks through payment links, hosted checkout pages, QR codes, or a full REST API. 5-minute setup for no-code implementations. Zero chargebacks, instant settlement. Complete developer documentation for custom builds.
Speed payouts
Send global instant payouts in BTC, USDT, and USDC over Lightning Network and on-chain networks. Bulk payout processing via REST API with sandbox environment. Built for platforms distributing earnings to contractors, affiliates, and workers across 100+ countries.
Speed onramp & offramp
Onramp to BTC, USDT, or USDC for global payment and treasury operations. Offramp to USD with direct transfers to business bank accounts. Handles the fiat-to-crypto and crypto-to-fiat conversion layer for businesses that want to accept crypto while settling in familiar fiat.
Speed connect
For payment platforms, POS systems, loyalty programs, and gateways wanting to add Bitcoin and stablecoin acceptance under their own brand. Full compliance, sub-merchant management, and multi-asset support included. Designed for infrastructure businesses building on Speed's rails.
FAQs
What is Bitcoin and stablecoin payment infrastructure for businesses?
How are stablecoins different from Bitcoin for business payments?
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What is the GENIUS Act, and what does it mean for businesses accepting stablecoins?
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What is the Lightning Network and why does it matter for merchants?
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What makes Speed different from managing crypto wallets directly?
Speed is a leading lightning payment infrastructure for Bitcoin and stablecoin payments for individuals & businesses. Accept lightning payments in your online or offline store, instantly, at no setup cost.
United States
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Speed Merchant (tryspeed.com) is operated by Speed1 INC and utilizes crypto services covered by the Money Services Business (MSB) license held by CoinX USA LLC
(MSB License: 31000292053099), under an exclusive internal licensing agreement.