The fee gap is larger than most merchants realise
Card payments typically run 2.5 to 3.5% in fees. Stablecoin payments through a rail like WalletConnect Pay run 0.5 to 1.0%, up to 80% less. On a business doing meaningful transaction volume, that difference compounds fast. It's not a rounding error; it's a structural change to the margin on every single transaction.
Settlement speed tells a similar story. Cards settle over 2 to 3 days. Stablecoins settle near-instantly, 24/7, with no batch windows and no waiting for the next business day. For any merchant managing cash flow tightly, that's the difference between money sitting in a settlement queue and money already usable.
Customers who pay in crypto spend more
This is the part that tends to surprise people: crypto customers show 15 to 25% higher average order value compared to card customers. Crypto card spending itself grew 525% in 2025, which is enough scale that it reads as a genuine demand signal rather than a rounding anomaly.
At the same time, fewer than 4% of merchants currently accept crypto payments, against 96% of crypto holders who say they want to pay that way. That gap between demand and acceptance is exactly where the highest average order value customers are currently going unserved.
What merchants actually control
None of this requires an all-or-nothing decision. Merchants accepting stablecoin payments through WalletConnect Pay choose what to accept: stablecoins only, stablecoins plus ETH, all supported assets, or specific chains like Ethereum and Base. They also choose how to settle, holding proceeds as stablecoin or converting to fiat automatically.
That flexibility matters because it means adopting stablecoin payments doesn't require betting on volatility or holding a crypto balance sheet if that's not the goal. A merchant can accept USDC and have it land in their bank account as fiat the same day, with the customer never seeing anything more complicated than a payment confirmation.
No new infrastructure required
The practical objection merchants raise is integration cost, and it's a legitimate one. WalletConnect Pay is designed to sit alongside existing payment methods rather than replace them, appearing in checkout next to Apple Pay and PayPal, or as a QR code at point of sale, or as an NFC tap that mirrors a contactless card payment. The customer selects it, approves the payment in their wallet, and it settles in seconds.
Underneath that simple flow, WalletConnect Pay handles gas fees, chain routing, and compliance (sanctions screening and Travel Rule checks run automatically before value moves), so none of that complexity reaches the merchant or the customer. What the merchant sees is a completed payment. What the customer sees is a confirmation. Everything in between is infrastructure, not the merchant's problem to solve.
Weighing it up
Lower fees on every transaction, faster settlement, and a customer segment that spends 15 to 25% more, against an integration that sits alongside existing checkout rather than replacing it. For merchants still on the fence about stablecoin acceptance, the economics are less speculative than they might expect, and less disruptive to implement than the words "crypto payments" might suggest.