How to Accept Crypto on Shopify: Orders, Costs and Refunds

Which crypto route can your Shopify store use?

Start with native USDC if your account and customers fit it. Every other option has its own approval and running requirements. Our processor selection guide helps you work out which customer wallets and receiving currency matter to your shop.

Can you activate native USDC?

Your store needs Shopify Payments switched on, an eligible location and a representative with an eligible residential address. Shopify may ask for more business verification while activation is pending. The native guide lists Mexico, the US except Alaska, New York and Texas, and Hong Kong. Its European list is Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK.^[1]

Shopify's two lists disagree on US states: its US payment-methods guide excludes Arkansas, New York, Pennsylvania and Texas. Ask Shopify about your own store instead of picking the list that suits you.^[2]

USDC checkout works on Base, Ethereum L1, Optimism, Polygon and Arbitrum. Shopify's guide for native USDC excludes subscriptions, partial capture and post-purchase upsells. Partial capture means taking only part of the amount a customer has approved, which is different from a partial refund.^[1]

What does the BitPay route require?

BitPay needs its own approved business account. Its country guidance takes US and Canadian merchant applications, pauses new onboarding in the EEA, UK and Australia, and adds state and product restrictions.^[10] The BitPay review covers the wider account decision.

Its verification guide asks for business and owner documents, an active website, a description of what you sell and settlement details. Bank settlement needs an account in the business's own name.^[12] When you ask about eligibility, tell BitPay who owns and controls the business (with citizenship, residence and location where relevant), where your customers are and what lawful goods you sell. Selling your own stock is different from collecting for other sellers.

BitPay's official Shopify connection guide has you finish verification and settlement setup before connecting the additional method. The app listing names BitPay, Inc. as publisher and says processing is charged.^[8] A listing doesn't prove your account is approved or that the app will work in your store.

Is this the old Coinbase Commerce integration?

No. Native USDC through Shopify Payments is a different product from Commerce and Coinbase Business. Coinbase says Commerce portal access closed after March 31, 2026, and describes a new Business application for eligible US or Singapore businesses.^[21] An old connector or a Business payment link doesn't mean a current Shopify connector exists. New-account pricing is still unclear; our Coinbase Business review explains how the products differ.

How do BTCPay and plain manual payments differ?

BTCPay puts a payment system behind a manual checkout option. With plain instructions, your own staff match payments to orders. The bridge needs Basic Shopify or above, a partner account, BTCPay core 2.0.6 or later, and a BTCPay store and wallet already set up. A third-party host must enable the Shopify fragment and V2 plugin.^[7]

The customer picks the custom method at checkout, then pays with a button on the Thank-you page, and once it's configured, order updates can happen automatically. It isn't a native Shopify Payments app, and a customer on the Thank-you page may not have paid yet. These prerequisites come from the docs, not from a test install, and may not match the latest version. The BTCPay review explains what running it involves.

Plain manual orders stay unpaid or Pending until the money arrives and your staff mark them paid. Pasting in a wallet address gives you no invoice engine, confirmation rule or refund integration. Showing prices in several currencies needs Shopify Payments and the international sales tools in Shopify's guide.^[4]

What should be ready before the connection?

Settle the business questions before you pay anyone to set anything up. Shopify's additional-method guidance asks for provider-specific configuration, authentication and activation, so installing the app is only one step.^[6]

1. 
   01

   Choose the route you can use

   Match your store, company, owners, customers, goods, network and payout option to the route you want, and make sure you're approved or meet the software and host requirements.

2. 
   02

   Hand out the setup jobs

   Your Shopify administrator and whoever maintains the connection follow the official guide. Sort out which jobs belong to Shopify, the processor, the host and whoever runs BTCPay.

3. 
   03

   Decide what counts as paid

   Pick which payment record counts as final, how payments get matched to orders and how you'll handle exceptions, and who controls stock, dispatch and digital access.

4. 
   04

   Cover the ongoing work

   Decide who handles refunds, reconciliation, customer questions, maintenance and backups. Track whether goods were delivered and whether any money went back.

When can you ship a parcel or release a download?

Before you deliver, make sure the right payment has arrived and has the confirmations your route and your own rules require. The order, amount, asset and network all have to match. A redirect, an email, a broadcast transaction or a label someone changed by hand isn't enough on its own.

In BitPay's invoice states, “paid” means a transaction was broadcast. Your configured confirmation policy decides when to fulfil, and “complete” means the merchant account has been credited.^[11] BTCPay's wallet settings decide how many confirmations count as settled. Its Shopify mapping can also mark an order paid after manual settlement, so look at the payment behind the label.^[14][7]

Shopify warns about overselling in flash sales when settlement takes longer.^[5] Reserving stock is up to you, and no common payment timer or plugin promises to solve scarcity. Our ecommerce guide covers fulfilment more broadly.

What will Shopify and the processor charge?

Budget for your Shopify plan, the payment service's charge and any extra Shopify platform charge. Shopify's third-party fee is worked out on the discounted product value plus tax and shipping, and it comes on top of the processor's charge. Manual methods and POS orders are excluded, and Shopify doesn't return the fee when an order is refunded.^[3]

Turning on Shopify Payments doesn't waive the fee on every order paid through an outside provider. Shopify's PayPal exception requires Shopify Payments as the primary provider. A rule for stores created on or after May 12, 2025 applies only to the part of an order paid with store credit or gift cards, not to the whole mixed-method order or to native USDC pricing.^[3]

A quote only fits the business it was written for, so compare offers on the same company, owners, customer countries, goods, plan, asset and network, and the same way of receiving money.

Ask about what a headline rate leaves out: setup and monthly fees, minimums, network fees on both sides, what Lightning needs to receive payments, and what you lose to conversion. Running BTCPay yourself adds hosting, staff time and backups, and banks, refunds and closing the account cost money too. Custom or higher-risk terms nobody has quoted are a cost you can't see yet, and unknown isn't free. The BitPay fee guide and calculator explanation show how the processing fee compares with the full bill.

How do you finish a customer refund?

A refund needs someone to approve it, the right amount and destination, enough funds and a result you can confirm. Native USDC refunds come out of your USDC balance if you take USDC payouts. With fiat payouts, Shopify debits your Shopify Payments balance and converts it to USDC.^[1] Neither rule tells you the customer has received anything.

BitPay moves a refund through preview, created, pending and success stages, and a submitted request isn't a finished refund.^[13] BTCPay's Shopify claim links cover orders paid through BTCPay. They need fragment/app v1.6 or later, with email and refund notifications configured, which is a different minimum from the core version requirement.^[7]

In BTCPay's illustrated on-chain flow, the claim comes first, then approval, signing, sending and blockchain confirmation. Don't assume every Lightning setup follows that signing procedure.^[17] You'll have to work out how the refund is valued and who bears any fee. Neither a claim nor your bookkeeping proves the original processing charge was returned.

Take the UK as an example for consumer sales. GOV.UK guidance, which we read on October 18, 2026, treats faulty goods and change-of-mind distance returns differently, with product exceptions. A fee your provider keeps doesn't by itself let you take that amount off what the customer is owed.^[19] For immediate downloads or streaming, the customer must agree to instant supply and accept they lose the cancellation right before delivery, and you record that with the required contract confirmation in a format they can keep.^[20] That isn't a worldwide rule against refunding digital goods. This is general information, not legal advice.

Where do proceeds become usable, and who helps?

A confirmed payment, an available balance, a payout instruction and money landing in your bank are four different steps. Native fiat proceeds follow your Shopify Payments payout setup, and eligible USDC proceeds need a manual claim. The US guide also describes credits that depend on availability, so don't count on every payout option being open to you.^[2]

With BTCPay, an external Bitcoin signer keeps spending power away from the checkout server, while a hot wallet held by the host gives the host spending access. Altered server instructions can divert future payments.^[15] On a shared host, Lightning payments can arrive in the host's wallet before reaching you; your own node and receiving capacity change that.^[16] The BTCPay versus BitPay comparison explains the control trade-off. Converting to fiat or reaching a bank takes a service of its own, and it has to approve you.

You own the customer's order, and whoever maintains the connection keeps it working. BTCPay publishes community channels and paid help you arrange yourself, with no guarantee of support.^[18] Our BTCPay alternatives guide is the place to look if that responsibility doesn't suit your shop.

Subscriptions are out for native USDC, and recurring features on other platforms don't carry over to Shopify or give you permission to debit an external wallet; see the SaaS and membership guide. If you're moving from another platform, our WooCommerce guide describes a different connection. We reviewed public documents only, without installing a checkout or making a payment; our methodology explains that limit.

Accepting crypto on Shopify FAQ