Selecting a crypto payments gateway is no longer about “Can it take Bitcoin?” It’s about conversion, cost control, compliance, and clean reconciliation. Below is a vendor-agnostic checklist your finance, compliance, product, and engineering teams can use to evaluate providers in 2025. Use it as a scorecard to shortlist vendors quickly and avoid surprises after integration.
1) Assets & rails: meet customers where they are
- Stablecoins first. Ensure USDC (and, if relevant, USDT) are supported across multiple efficient networks.
- BTC/ETH options. Offer mainstream assets with fixed-rate quotes and clear expiry windows.
- Smart routing. The gateway should route payments across chains to minimize fees and latency without burdening the user with technical choices.
Ask vendors: Which chains do you support for USDC? Do you auto-route for fees/latency? What’s your average confirmation time by chain?
2) Pricing transparency: know your true Total Cost of Acceptance (TCA)
- Gateway fee. % + fixed, or tiered by volume?
- Network fee. Who pays? Is it surfaced to the payer or baked in?
- FX/Conversion spread. If you auto-convert to fiat or stablecoins, what’s the spread vs mid-market?
- Hidden costs. Chargeback handling, refund processing, payout fees—get them in writing.
Pro tip: Build a TCA model comparing vendor quotes with your expected payment mix (USDC vs BTC/ETH), average order value (AOV), and geographies.
3) Checkout UX: conversions rise or fall here
- Hosted vs embedded. Evaluate speed of launch (hosted) vs UX control (embedded).
- Quote windows & timers. Clear countdowns reduce under/over-payments and support.
- Refund UX. Make refund requests self-service with secure verification, not email ping-pong.
- Localization. Languages, local currency display, and tax lines should feel native.
Ask vendors: Show me a live demo with a cart of my AOV, in my languages, with a refund scenario.
4) Refunds & disputes: card-like experience, crypto-native rails
- Partial refunds. Support line-item and percentage-based refunds.
- Audit trail. Order ↔ tx hash ↔ refund hash must be linked for finance.
- Policy controls. Set refund windows, restocking fees, and anti-abuse rules.
5) Compliance: scalable controls without wrecking UX
- KYT/wallet screening. Sanctions and risk screening pre-authorization.
- Transaction monitoring. Rules, thresholds, and case management for reviews.
- Data retention & privacy. Where is data stored? How long? What’s the lawful basis?
Your provider should have configurable controls so you can adapt to market or regulatory changes without re-engineering your checkout.
6) Reconciliation & accounting: close the month in hours, not days
- Normalized ledger. Every payment should map to a base fiat currency with exchange rate and timestamps.
- Exports & APIs. CSV/S3 dumps, API pulls, and direct ERP connectors.
- Dispute linkage. Refunds, chargebacks (if any), and adjustments tied to the original transaction.
Ask for a sample export and a sandbox account. Run three test flows: successful payment, expired quote, partial refund. Verify the lines you’d need for audit are present.
7) Integrations & time-to-live
- Praxis, PIQ, BridgerPay, FXBO.
- Custom stack. Server-to-server APIs, webhooks, SDKs, and Postman collections.
- Webhooks reliability. Retries, signing, idempotency keys.
If you need to roll out quickly, prioritize hosted checkout + webhooks, then move to embedded/SDK later.
8) Settlement & treasury
- Auto-conversion rules. Convert to USDC or fiat instantly to avoid exposure.
- Multi-wallet support. Segregate treasury per region or brand.
- Payouts. Pay suppliers/creators in stablecoins or fiat from the same dashboard.
9) SLAs, uptime, and support
- Transparent status page. Historical uptime and incident reports.
- Support tiers. 24/7 coverage for payment operations.
- Incident playbooks. Clear RTO/RPO targets and comms.
10) Security posture
- Key management. HSMs/MPC, withdrawal allow-lists, multi-sig approvals.
- Least-privilege access. RBAC, SSO, audit logs.
- Pen tests & audits. Frequency and scope.
The 15-point buyer’s checklist (copy/paste)
- Assets & chains (USDC multi-chain + BTC/ETH)
- Smart routing to minimize fees/latency
- Transparent gateway + network + FX costs
- Hosted vs embedded checkout options
- Clear quote windows & expiry handling
- Robust, user-friendly refund flows
- KYT + monitoring + configurable policies
- Normalized ledger & clean exports
- ERP/accounting integrations & webhooks
- Auto-conversion & multi-wallet treasury
- Supplier payouts in stablecoins/fiat
- Plugins/SDKs & sandbox access
- SLAs, support tiers, and status page
- Security (MPC/HSM, RBAC, audits)
- Reference customers in your vertical
Run this with your internal stakeholders and score each vendor 1–5 on every line. Shortlist the top two and do live payment tests before signing.
