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There are two ways to take a crypto payment on Shopify, and the choice is not the one the comparison articles describe. It is not Bitcoin versus stablecoins, or custodial versus self-custodial. It is whether the money moves through Shopify Payments or around it — because that single fact decides whether Shopify bills you a second time on every order.
Pricing, ratings, review counts, and listing availability were verified on the en-US Shopify App Store, the Shopify Help Center, and vendor documentation on September 10, 2026. All prices are in USD.
The native option: USDC inside Shopify Payments
Shopify announced USDC on Base with Shopify Payments on June 12, 2025, built with Coinbase and Stripe. It is not an app and not a gateway. It is a payment method you switch on in Settings > Payments > Manage payment methods, under a section labeled Crypto.
Per the current Help Center documentation: customers pay from any of 480 crypto wallets Shopify accepts, with no foreign exchange or gas fees. Shopify accepts USDC on five networks — Base, Ethereum L1, Optimism, Polygon, and Arbitrum; the 2025 announcement described Base only. You receive funds either in your normal payout currency on your normal payout schedule, or as a USDC balance you claim manually to a connected wallet.
Because it runs through Shopify Payments, it is exempt from Shopify's third-party transaction fee. That exemption is the whole argument, and it is worth more than the rate.
The rate is not the saving
Here is what Shopify's US pricing page charged on September 10, 2026:
| Basic | Grow | Advanced | Plus | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Online standard card rates | 2.9% + 30¢ | 2.7% + 30¢ | 2.5% + 30¢ | Most competitive rates |
| USDC rates | 2.9% + 30¢ | 2.7% + 30¢ | 2.5% + 30¢ | Most competitive rates |
| Online international rates | + 1% | + 1% | + 1% | Most competitive rates |
| Third-party transaction fees | 2% | 1% | 0.6% | 0.2% |
USDC costs precisely what a domestic Visa costs, on every plan. Shopify's launch post promised "no foreign transaction or exchange fees," and that is accurate — but read it as written. The saving is the + 1% international surcharge and the multi-currency conversion, not the base rate. A US store selling to US customers saves nothing on rate by accepting USDC.
What it does get is the disputes column. Shopify's documentation states plainly that with USDC, "your customers can't open disputes on orders paid for using USDC." For a category with a chargeback problem — high-ticket electronics, collectibles, anything shipped internationally — that is the real product, and it does not show up in a fee table.
Merchants also accrue a credit on each USDC transaction, and customers may receive automatic USDC cashback on Base, capped at 100 USDC per transaction and distributed 30 days after purchase. Shopify does not publish the credit rate, so treat it as a rebate of unstated size rather than a number you can model.
Four things that stop working
Before switching it on, note what the Help Center lists under considerations. Each of these is a functional loss, not a caveat:
- You can't partially capture funds on a USDC order. Authorize-then-capture works; capturing less than the authorized amount does not.
- Customers can't pay for subscription products with USDC. If you run Recharge, Appstle, or Shopify Subscriptions, the subscription cart cannot check out in USDC.
- Customers can't open disputes. This cuts both ways: no chargebacks for you, no dispute path for a buyer who never receives the goods.
- You can't offer post-purchase upsells when a customer pays with USDC. Whatever post-purchase offer app you run, its offers do not appear on those orders.
There is also a refund trap tied to cashback. If a customer received cashback, you cannot refund more than the order total minus the cashback amount, and Shopify warns on the order when the cap applies. Stores with a returns window longer than 30 days will hit this, because cashback pays out at day 30.
Eligibility, and where Shopify's own documentation disagrees with itself
To turn USDC on you need Shopify Payments active, a store in a supported region, and — the part that catches people — the account representative on your Shopify Payments account must have a residential address in a USDC-eligible region. It is the human's address, not the business's.
Coverage as documented: Mexico and the United States in North America; twenty-nine listed regions in Europe; and in Asia-Pacific, Shopify Payments Hong Kong only. Then there is the United States, where Shopify publishes two lists that do not match. The USD Coin (USDC) page says the eligible region is "United States, excluding Alaska, New York, or Texas." The Customer payment methods with Shopify Payments in the United States page says: "If you're based in Arkansas, New York, Pennsylvania, or Texas, then you can't accept USDC payments."
Only New York and Texas appear on both. Alaska appears on one, Arkansas and Pennsylvania on the other. A merchant in Anchorage, Little Rock, or Philadelphia cannot determine from Shopify's own documentation whether this feature is available to them. Open Settings > Payments and look for the Crypto section; the admin is the only authority that resolves the conflict.
The other path: nine providers, four dead listings
If USDC is not enough — you want Bitcoin, or Lightning, or you want funds landing in your own wallet — Shopify's Cryptocurrency page names nine providers to activate as additional payment methods: Solana Pay, Crypto.com, BitPay, DePay, OpenNode, Strike, Lunu, Bit2Me Commerce, and IBEX Pay.
Checked one by one on the en-US App Store on September 10, 2026:
| Provider named by Shopify | App Store listing | Rating (reviews) | Listed pricing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Solana Pay (Helio Fintech Ltd) | Not currently available | — | — |
| Crypto.com Pay | Not currently available | — | — |
| BitPay | Live | 5.0 (1) | Free to install, "a low processing fee" |
| DePay | Live | 5.0 (4) | Free to install, 1.5% transaction fee |
| OpenNode ‑ Bitcoin Payments | Live | 5.0 (3) | Free to install, 1% per transaction |
| STRIKE – Pay with Bitcoin | Live | 4.1 (8) | Free |
| Lunu Crypto Pay | Live | 5.0 (1) | Free to install, "fees starting as low as 1%" |
| Bit2Me Commerce | Not currently available | — | — |
| IBEX PAY Bitcoin Payments | Not currently available | — | — |
Four of nine return the same sentence: "This app is not currently available on the Shopify App Store."
Source: Shopify App Store (Crypto.com Pay), retrieved September 10, 2026
Worse, the setup-instruction links Shopify publishes on that help page point at two of the dead pages directly: the Bit2Me Commerce link resolves to apps.shopify.com/bit2me-commerce and the IBEX Pay link to apps.shopify.com/ibexpay-payment-gateway, both of which now show the unavailable notice. Coinbase Commerce, which anchors most third-party "best crypto app for Shopify" roundups, is not on Shopify's list at all, and its App Store listing is also gone.
A delisted App Store page does not always mean the gateway is unavailable in Settings > Payments — a payment provider can exist in the admin without a public listing. But it does mean there is no listing to read, no reviews to check, and no pricing to compare before you commit. Verify in your own admin's payment provider list, not from a blog post.
You cannot find any of this by searching the App Store
Search the en-US App Store for bitcoin and you get nine results — price tickers, a loyalty app, a currency converter, badges. Not one of them accepts a Bitcoin payment. Search cryptocurrency payments and you get 586 results, effectively all of them apps for hiding, sorting, and renaming payment methods at checkout.
Crypto payment providers do not surface in App Store search because they are payment gateways, not apps. Shopify's help page tells you where to look instead: Settings > Payments > Add payment methods, then search "cryptocurrency" as a keyword there. If you have been browsing the App Store and concluding that Shopify has no crypto options, this is why.
The fee that no comparison article includes
Shopify's third-party transaction fees documentation is explicit: "Third-party transaction fees apply on all third-party and alternate payment gateways even when Shopify Payments is activated," and "Transaction fees are in addition to processing fees charged by your third-party payment provider."
So a crypto gateway costs the gateway's fee plus Shopify's plan fee. Three details make that worse than it sounds:
- The base is the whole order. Shopify's formula is
[(cost of products - discounts) + tax + shipping charges] x rate. You pay the fee on sales tax you collected and on shipping you charged. - It is not returned on refunds. "Third-party transaction fees aren't returned to you when you issue an order refund." And crypto refunds are manual: "There are no automatic refunds for cryptocurrency payments through Shopify. You need to refund payments manually through your payment gateway."
- Plus stores lose their waiver. Shopify's documentation says Plus stores using Shopify Payments as their sole provider have third-party transaction fees waived, "including fees on store credit and gift cards," and that "if you use Shopify Payments alongside a third-party payment provider, then transaction fees apply." Adding a crypto gateway ends the sole-provider condition. Plus merchants should confirm with Shopify what the waiver's loss covers before switching one on.
What that does to the math
BitPay's App Store listing discloses no rate at all — only that it "charges a low processing fee on all transactions." BitPay's own pricing page discloses the number, and it is tiered by monthly volume: 2% + 25¢ under $500,000/month, 1.5% + 25¢ from $500,000 to $999,999, and 1% + 25¢ at $1,000,000 or more, with "higher fees applicable for high-risk industries." The 1% that circulates in comparison articles is the enterprise tier, not the starting tier.
Total cost on a $100 order with no tax or shipping, for a store at BitPay's entry tier:
| Plan | Native USDC | BitPay (2% + 25¢) + Shopify's fee |
|---|---|---|
| Basic | $3.20 | $2.25 + $2.00 = $4.25 |
| Grow | $3.00 | $2.25 + $1.00 = $3.25 |
| Advanced | $2.80 | $2.25 + $0.60 = $2.85 |
On Basic the third-party route costs about a third more. By Advanced the two converge. The plan you are on, not the gateway you pick, is what moves this number — and adding tax and shipping to the order pushes the third-party column up further, because Shopify's fee is charged on those and USDC's 30¢ is flat.
The cheaper gateways narrow it. On the same $100 Basic-plan order, OpenNode's listed 1% plus Shopify's 2% comes to $3.00, just under native USDC's $3.20; DePay's 1.5% plus 2% comes to $3.50, just over. Neither margin survives contact with a real order that carries sales tax and shipping, because Shopify's fee is charged on both and USDC's 30¢ is flat.
The four live gateways
BitPay — BitPay, Inc., launched July 21, 2022, rated 5.0 across 1 review.
Source: Shopify App Store (BitPay), retrieved September 10, 2026
The pitch is custody avoidance: "you never have to buy, hold, store, or take custody of any cryptocurrency. You don't even need a crypto wallet!" Settlement lands in USD, EUR, GBP and others directly to a bank account, across 14+ coins including BTC, BCH, DOGE, ETH, LTC, SHIB, USDC, EUROC and Lightning Network payments. Broadest coin coverage of the five — and the only listing of the five that states no rate at all.
DePay — DePay AG, launched May 17, 2022, rated 5.0 across 4 reviews, 1.5% transaction fee.
Source: Shopify App Store (DePay), retrieved September 10, 2026
The opposite model: customers pay directly into your crypto wallet, with on-the-fly conversion via decentralized finance so you receive only the tokens you configured. Base, BNB Smart Chain, Ethereum, Polygon and Solana. There is no bank off-ramp — you are running a wallet, and that is a treasury decision, not a checkout decision.
OpenNode ‑ Bitcoin Payments — OpenNode Inc., launched June 14, 2022, rated 5.0 across 3 reviews, 1% per transaction.
Source: Shopify App Store (OpenNode ‑ Bitcoin Payments), retrieved September 10, 2026
Bitcoin and Lightning only, with optional conversion to fiat. The cheapest listed rate of the five, and the narrowest scope.
STRIKE – Pay with Bitcoin — Zap Solutions Holdings, Inc., launched March 28, 2022, rated 4.1 across 8 reviews, listed pricing Free.
Source: Shopify App Store (STRIKE – Pay with Bitcoin), retrieved September 10, 2026
Lightning Network only; customers pay in bitcoin and the merchant is paid as cash. It has the most reviews of any crypto gateway on the App Store, and the only rating breakdown that is not uniformly five stars: the listing shows five 5-star reviews, one 3-star, and two 1-star. The complaints on the listing are about onboarding rather than payments — one review reports resending a verification email repeatedly and never receiving it.
Lunu Crypto Pay — Lunu Solutions GmbH, Berlin, launched September 28, 2022, rated 5.0 across 1 review, "fees starting as low as 1%."
Source: Shopify App Store (Lunu Crypto Pay), retrieved September 10, 2026
Settlement in local currency, in-store and online, with built-in AML, KYC and KYT. Note the hedge in "starting as low as" — like BitPay, the listing does not commit to a rate you can budget against.
Add those five review counts together and you get 17 reviews across the entire crypto payments category on the Shopify App Store. That is the context to read every one of these 5.0 ratings in. Two of the four perfect scores — BitPay's and Lunu Crypto Pay's — rest on a single review each, and the highest review count in the category is eight.
One more warning worth reading twice
Shopify's Cryptocurrency page carries a line that most merchants will only understand after it happens: "Due to longer settlement times, cryptocurrency transactions can cause overselling in flash sales. Use a direct payment method like Shopify Payments for the best flash sale performance."
If your business runs drops, that sentence should decide this for you. A third-party crypto gateway during a limited-inventory launch is an oversell generator. Native USDC is not, because Shopify and Coinbase built the authorize-now-capture-later behavior into it specifically so inventory reservation and tax finalization work the way they do for cards.
Which to choose
Turn on native USDC if you sell internationally and want to stop paying the + 1% surcharge and multi-currency conversion, if chargebacks are a real cost line, and if you do not sell subscriptions or run post-purchase upsells. One toggle, no new provider, no effect on your third-party transaction fees. But do not turn it on expecting a discount as a US store selling to US customers — the rate is the card rate.
Use a third-party gateway only when you need a coin Shopify Payments does not accept — Bitcoin or Lightning, in practice — or when you want funds settling into your own wallet rather than your bank. Budget the gateway fee plus your plan's third-party transaction fee, on the tax-and-shipping-inclusive order total, and assume you eat both on every refund.
Do neither if you are on Basic, sell domestically, and were hoping crypto would cut processing costs. On a $100 order the cheapest documented crypto route is roughly what a credit card already costs, and the credit card does not require your customer to own a wallet.
Sources
- Shopify Help Center, USD Coin (USDC)
- Shopify Help Center, Cryptocurrency
- Shopify Help Center, Customer payment methods with Shopify Payments in the United States
- Shopify Help Center, Third-party transaction fees on your Shopify bills
- Shopify Help Center, Third-party payment providers
- Shopify, Pricing
- Shopify, Introducing USDC on Shopify: Simple, borderless payments for merchants
- Shopify Changelog, Introducing USDC on Base with Shopify Payments
- BitPay, Pricing
- Shopify App Store listings for BitPay, DePay, OpenNode ‑ Bitcoin Payments, STRIKE – Pay with Bitcoin, Lunu Crypto Pay, Crypto.com Pay, Solana Pay, Bit2Me Commerce, and IBEX PAY Bitcoin Payments
Shopify's own documentation sets the ceiling: an app can run at most five usage meters per plan, at most six pricing tiers per meter, and 'usage caps aren't currently supported.' Vitals — the $29.99 all-in-one app with a Built for Shopify badge and 2,953 reviews — runs exactly five meters at exactly six tiers. Two of them bill on 'assisted sales attributed to Vitals,' a number Vitals computes and you cannot audit, and at Tier 6 every extra $10K of attributed sales adds $100. Vitals' App Store listing names two metered things; its own pricing page lists five. Its Help Center's entire Billing & Charging section, last updated April 10, 2026, mentions none of them. Meanwhile three of the five meters bill for things Shopify Forms, Shopify Messaging and Microsoft Clarity give away. Compared against Growave, which meters orders instead. Verified against primary sources on September 11, 2026.