Your customers already have the money. They just can't spend it with you.
Nearly a billion people around the world hold crypto. 96% of them say they want to use it to pay for things. And right now, fewer than 4% of merchants accept it.
That gap doesn't exist because the technology isn't ready. It exists because most merchants haven't added the option yet. And the ones who have are starting to see something interesting: those customers spend more, pay faster, and don't come back with chargebacks.
This isn't about replacing cards. Cards still work. This is about adding a payment method that a fast-growing, high-spending segment of your customers actually wants to use. Whether you're running a coffee shop in Lisbon, a retail store in Lagos, a hotel in Singapore, or an e-commerce brand shipping to New York and Jakarta.
Why now, and why stablecoins specifically
Crypto has always had the reputation of being volatile. And for payments, that was a real problem: nobody wants to price a T-shirt in Bitcoin and watch the value move before the transaction clears.
Stablecoins solve that. They're digital currencies pegged to real-world values, usually the US dollar. USDC and USDT are the two biggest ones, and between them they're held by over 80% of active crypto users globally. For a merchant, accepting USDC is about as close as you can get to accepting digital dollars. The price doesn't move. You quote in your local currency. The stablecoin converts.
The stablecoin market hit $305 billion in 2025, up from $5 billion in 2020. Monthly active stablecoin users peaked at 416 million last May, growing 40% year on year. These are not speculative traders. A large share of them are people who hold digital dollars because they're cheaper, faster, or more accessible than their local banking options, and they want somewhere to spend them.
What this looks like for merchants in different markets
The reason this matters isn't the same everywhere. Here's what it actually looks like across the markets where wallet payments are growing fastest.
Lagos and Sub-Saharan Africa. Card infrastructure is patchy, international card acceptance is expensive, and a lot of customers who do have money hold it in stablecoins rather than local currency. 74% of African survey respondents in WalletConnect's 2026 research said they prefer to pay in stablecoins, the highest of any region globally. For a merchant in Lagos, adding wallet payments is less about serving crypto enthusiasts and more about reaching customers who genuinely don't have better options for paying.
Paris and Western Europe. 45% of European crypto holders say too few merchants accept crypto, making it the single biggest barrier in the region. There's strong demand and very little supply. European merchants who move first are capturing customers that competitors are turning away, without having to do much to find them.
New York and North America. The customer base here tends to be sophisticated: holding diverse assets across multiple wallets, looking for the same kind of rewards and convenience they get from premium card products. Crypto customers in the US carry significantly higher average balances than almost anywhere else in the world (US wallets average $99,700 in stablecoins). Adding wallet payments here is partly about the revenue, partly about signalling that you're a merchant who moves with where customers are going.
Las Vegas. High-value hospitality and entertainment. Guests arrive internationally, often with large balances in wallets, and face FX fees and card decline rates on foreign transactions. Stablecoin payments mean no FX conversion, no foreign transaction decline, instant settlement. A hotel or venue that accepts wallets is removing a real friction point for a high-spending customer.
Singapore. Singapore processed $1.47 billion through the WalletConnect network in the past 12 months, more than any other single country. The regulatory framework for stablecoins has been live since mid-2025. For Singapore merchants, wallet payments are already expected in certain segments, and the infrastructure to support it properly is in place.
Indonesia and Southeast Asia. 49% of Southeast Asian users prefer direct wallet-to-merchant payment over cards or any other method. Indonesia has one of the largest crypto user bases in Southeast Asia, and for many customers, their wallet is their primary financial interface. Merchants who don't accept wallets are leaving a significant share of local purchasing power on the table.
The practical case: fees, settlement, and chargebacks
Setting the regional picture aside, the economics work for any merchant.
Card payments cost 2.5 to 3.5% in transaction fees, settle in one to three business days, and come with chargeback exposure that can run anywhere from inconvenient to genuinely damaging for small businesses. Cross-border card transactions cost even more, often 3 to 5% once you account for FX and international processing.
Stablecoin payments through WalletConnect Pay cost 0.5 to 1.0%. Settlement is near-instant. Chargebacks don't exist. Once a blockchain transaction is confirmed, it's final. And the network runs 24/7, so you're not waiting for batch windows or banking hours for funds to clear.
Illia Akulove, co-owner of 94° coffee shop in Lisbon, put it plainly after enabling stablecoin payments: "Compared to card payments, fees are lower and chargebacks are essentially nonexistent. Once the setup was done, it's been smoother than we expected, and that's saying something for a busy coffee shop."
Crypto customers also tend to spend more. WalletConnect Pay data shows 15 to 25% higher average order value from wallet-paying customers compared to card. That's not a rounding error.
How customers actually pay
There's no steep learning curve for customers. The experience is designed to feel like any other mobile payment.
Online. WalletConnect Pay shows up as a payment option in your checkout alongside cards and digital wallets. The customer clicks it, picks their wallet (MetaMask, Coinbase Wallet, Trust Wallet, or any of 700+ supported options), and approves. No card details. No redirects. Done in seconds.
In-store QR. Your point-of-sale displays a QR code with the amount. The customer opens their wallet app, scans, sees your business name and the amount, and approves. Payment confirms on-chain instantly. It feels exactly like scanning a QR code for Alipay or Mercado Pago.
Tap to pay. The customer taps their phone or hardware wallet to your terminal. Biometric confirmation. Instant. The same feel as a contactless card.
You choose which of these to enable. You also choose whether you want to receive settlement in fiat (so the stablecoin converts to your local currency and lands in your bank account) or hold stablecoins directly if you want to keep digital dollar balances.
You don't hold crypto unless you want to
This is the question that stops most merchants: do I have to manage a crypto wallet? Do I have exposure to price movements?
No and no.
WalletConnect Pay handles the conversion. The customer pays from their wallet in USDC or USDT. That gets converted and settled in fiat. What lands in your bank account looks the same as any other payment. You never hold a stablecoin balance unless you actively choose to.
If you do want to hold stablecoins, for example if you're a business that does a lot of cross-border transactions and wants to hold digital dollars to avoid FX conversion back and forth, that's also an option. But it's not required.
Getting set up: what it actually involves
Adding WalletConnect Pay works through your existing payment provider. If your PSP or acquirer has integrated WalletConnect Pay, enabling it for your store is a configuration change, not a technical project. You flip on the payment method, configure which currencies you accept and how you want to settle, and it shows up in checkout.
If your current payment provider doesn't offer it yet, get in touch with the WalletConnect Pay team directly. They can point you toward providers who are live or help you find the right integration path for your setup.
The setup is not weeks of technical work. For most merchants, it's closer to the experience of turning on PayPal or Apple Pay. The heavy lifting happens at the infrastructure level, and you don't see it.
What you're actually getting access to
When you enable WalletConnect Pay, you're connecting to WalletConnect's network: 700+ wallets, 500 million+ reachable users across 195 countries. That includes MetaMask, Coinbase Wallet, Trust Wallet, Phantom, Rainbow, and hundreds more that your customers might be using.
A customer in Jakarta using Trust Wallet, a tourist from Seoul using Kakao's wallet, a remote worker in Lagos who holds USDT as a dollar substitute: they can all pay you through the same checkout flow, with the same experience. You don't need to integrate each wallet separately. One integration covers all of them.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to understand crypto to accept wallet payments?
No. The experience for you as a merchant is the same as accepting any other payment method. You see a payment come in, it settles to your account, you get a receipt with a reference ID. WalletConnect Pay handles everything underneath.
What currencies will my customers pay in?
Primarily USDC and USDT, which are both pegged to the US dollar. You can configure which stablecoins you accept. If you want to only accept USDC, that's fine. WalletConnect Pay routes customer payments accordingly and handles any conversion needed.
What currency do I receive settlement in?
Your choice. Most merchants settle in their local fiat currency, which lands in their bank account the same as any other payment. If you want to receive and hold stablecoins directly, that option exists too.
What if a customer pays with the wrong currency or from the wrong chain?
This is handled automatically. WalletConnect Pay locks the payment intent before the transaction goes through, which means the customer can't accidentally pay with an unsupported token or on an unsupported chain. They're shown exactly what they can pay with and the amount is confirmed before they approve.
Are there chargebacks?
No. Blockchain transactions are final once confirmed. There's no equivalent of a card chargeback. You can still issue refunds if a customer needs one, but that's a deliberate action on your part, not something that can be initiated unilaterally by the customer or their bank.
Is this available in my country?
WalletConnect's network processes payments from wallets in 195 countries. Availability for merchants depends on your local payment provider and applicable regulations. The WalletConnect Pay team can help clarify what's available in your market.
What about tax and accounting?
Each transaction generates a reference ID and settlement record, the same as any other payment. Most accounting software and payment reporting tools can handle stablecoin transactions treated as fiat equivalent. Specific tax treatment varies by jurisdiction, and you should confirm with your accountant for your market.
Does it work for both online and in-store?
Yes. WalletConnect Pay supports online checkout, QR code in-store, and NFC tap-to-pay. You can enable whichever ones match how you operate.
The merchants who move first
The pattern here is familiar from every major shift in payment acceptance. The merchants who added card terminals early got customers that cash-only competitors missed. The ones who added mobile payment options early stopped losing customers at the point of sale.
Right now, 96% of crypto holders want to spend and fewer than 4% of merchants let them. That gap is closing. The merchants on the right side of it, when it closes, are the ones who set it up now, while it's still a differentiator rather than table stakes.
Adding wallet payments doesn't change how cards work. It adds a lane that a fast-growing group of customers actually wants to use. In Lagos, in Paris, in New York, in Las Vegas, in Singapore, in Jakarta: the customers are already there. The question is whether they can pay you.