Back to BlogWhy Shift4 Is Offering Crypto Payments
“Our commitment is to provide innovative payment solutions for both consumers and businesses, and with the rapid growth of crypto in everyday purchases, we are fully supporting this next evolution in commerce—and we intend to lead it.” - Jared Isaacman, CEO & Founder of Shift4
Shift4 acquired The Giving Block (TGB) in March 2022. The Giving Block is focused on helping nonprofits around the world accept bitcoin and other cryptocurrency donations in a seamless way. They work with the world’s leading charities like St. Jude, Save the Children, American Cancer Society and thousands more. We acquired The Giving Block not only for their high growth crypto philanthropy business, but to expand into new verticals. We intended to expand our presence in the nonprofit sector and expand our own capabilities when it comes to crypto.
With the acquisition, Shift4 established the Crypto Innovation Center to bring crypto payments to our other verticals. Today, after more than two and a half years of research and development, we’re excited to announce that we’ll be equipping our merchants to accept crypto and stablecoin payments globally.
We’ve expanded beyond The Giving Block’s charitable crypto solutions, rolling crypto capabilities out to ecommerce, restaurants, hotels, entertainment venues, airlines, gaming and more. This is a natural evolution of the acquisition and the culmination of our synergies.
With nearly $100 Billion worth of crypto trading hands every day, we recognized that the crypto payments market is underserved by the leading payment companies. We see a major opportunity in this market and we’re excited to be an early mover.
The Opportunity
Crypto has become bigger than most people realize. Crypto has grown to a market cap of nearly $3 trillion and now has 600 million users globally. We want to capture a portion of the nearly 12 figure transaction volume opportunity that exists today, and believe this opportunity size will only continue to grow as crypto becomes more mainstream.
Most importantly, we’ve seen an increase in demand from merchants across our many verticals.
There are three areas we are seeing the most demand from our merchants.
- Luxury Purchases: People have made a lot of money in crypto and some people store a large portion of their wealth in crypto. Similar to what we saw with The Giving Block where people are making multi-million dollar crypto donations, people want to spend their crypto on hotel suites, private jet charters and fancy restaurants.
- Developing Countries: Crypto usage is higher in developing countries than developed countries. For example, according to Mastercard, 51% of people in Latam have used cryptocurrency for daily purchases. This is in part because credit card adoption is low so people have opted to use crypto and local payment methods instead. This helps us with our global expansion plans to service regions like Latam, Africa and APAC.
- Reducing Risk: Some industry verticals more than others experience higher levels of fraud and chargebacks. With crypto, there is no chargeback risk which gives merchants peace of mind.
TAO Group and BLADE will be among some of the first customers to use the new capability. Both have already had substantial interest from their customers for crypto payment options.
People often think crypto is complicated; Shift4 has a history of making complex processes simple for merchants and we intend to do the same thing with crypto payments. The Giving Block has been doing this since 2018 and continues to be the market leader. Now we’ll apply what we learned to our other verticals.
How Will It Work?
Customers will be able to pay for goods and services in crypto or stablecoins but everything will automatically be converted to US dollars and settled to the merchant's bank account. Merchants will never touch crypto and taking crypto payments will be just as easy as taking credit card payments. Below you can see the simple process, enabling a seamless crypto experience for customers and a turnkey experience for merchants.
Thanks to our integration with Mesh, users will be able to link popular accounts like Coinbase, Metamask, Blockchain.com and more during the checkout process.
Why Crypto?
Shift4 works with over 200,000 merchants and processes over $260 billion per year. We expect crypto to play an increasingly relevant role for our customers as the crypto user base continues to grow. This should present a multi-billion dollar volume opportunity for us as a company.
Cryptocurrency FAQs
- Do many people use cryptocurrency?
Over 600 million people use cryptocurrency globally. It is increasingly being used for daily transactions and payments. - Which geographies and merchants are eligible for Pay with Crypto?
This product will be available globally and across our different business verticals. Each merchant will still need to pass our underwriting and risk reviews. - Which cryptocurrencies can be accepted by merchants?
Most major cryptocurrencies and stablecoins like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, USDC, USDT and more will be accepted. We will also support 300+ exchange and wallet links via Mesh. - What is a stablecoin?
A stablecoin is a type of cryptocurrency designed to maintain a stable value by being pegged to a reserve asset, such as a fiat currency (like the U.S. dollar or Euro). - Is there any volatility risk for merchants? What if the price of crypto changes?
Merchants never touch crypto, and all payments are automatically converted to US dollars and settled to your bank account so you are not exposed to any volatility. - When will this product be available?
Pilots are beginning this quarter (Q4) and we will expand it to the entire merchant base in 2025. - How does crypto eliminate chargebacks?
With crypto, each transaction is final. There is no way to “chargeback” transactions. - If there are no chargebacks, are refunds still possible?
Yes, merchants will still have the ability to issue refunds. - Can I accept payments from users globally?
Yes, crypto is borderless. You can take payments from people all over the world. - What Shift4 products or integrations does this work?
Pay with Crypto will be available for ecommerce and SkyTab merchants. - How will reporting and reconciliation work for merchants and employees who need to provide assistance?
Reporting will be fully integrated into Shift4 dashboards and existing interfaces. - How fast are crypto payments settled?
Most cryptocurrency payments are settled in a matter of seconds and merchants will receive a batch settlement at the end of each day. - What does it cost for merchants to accept?
Similar to traditional payments, pricing will vary depending on volumes. Please speak to your sales representative or account manager about pricing.