As More Businesses Accept Crypto, Are Gas Fees Still Blocking Operations?

As early as 1998, with PayPal’s inception, saw the move from what was previously a phone-based experience toward payment settlement purely over the internet. The importance of the world that this opened up cannot be overstated: Ecom giants like Amazon and eBay experienced significant growth in the Dotcom boom to become some of the most valued stocks of the day. 

Moving through the more recent years, established providers continue to play a prominent role in debit and credit payment processing, with the sector continuing to develop despite some hefty demand-side shocks resulting from geopolitical disturbances of the past few years. 

At the same time, micro-business card payment settlement is now a reality, with emerging payment providers helping to broaden access for small merchants and sole traders to pack the convenience of POS debit machines into almost any location on earth. 

Despite all of the advancements in payment processing, what has remained true is one thing: An important consideration in payment processing is expanding customer payment options while simplifying complexity for merchants, allowing them to focus on their core business.

Cryptocurrency Payments—Growing Consumer Awareness and Interest

An unexpected emergence has become apparent over the last decade or so in the payments processing industry: cryptocurrency. Previously considered a speculative asset, it has now become much more commonly demanded by consumers as a payment option, especially in the cutting-edge, SaaS/Tech spaces. 

Major companies across the technology and payments sectors are all offering payment options in popular currencies like Bitcoin & USDT for their products and services, with a January 2026 survey by PayPal showing that almost 4 in 10 merchants are currently accepting cryptocurrency payments, with over 25% of revenue coming from crypto, which is growing YoY.

With eMarketer also predicting that 1 in 5 cryptocurrency holders will use their crypto for payments by the end of this year, demand-led integration of the crypto payments process has never looked so pertinent for businesses.

How do Cryptocurrency Payments Actually Work for Businesses?

But how does receiving crypto work in practical terms? Simply put, merchants have two options: payment processor-led solutions and self-managed solutions. 

Payment processor-led solutions have historically been the simplest for businesses to adopt—much like card payments, the entire invoicing and settlement process is handled for the business. The customer simply sends their cryptocurrency to a gateway, and confirmation and payout are handled automatically by the payment processor. This method, however, has a disadvantage: exceptionally high fees. 

For businesses who want to save on payment processor fees, there’s also the option of self-settlement—businesses set up a wallet to receive cryptocurrency to, and accept payments directly to their unique address from customers. This cuts costs, but has typically been more complex because it requires holding two tokens: one, the actual USDT (money received), and another, TRX (a token required to pay the fees to send the USDT), commonly known as “gas.”

Simplifying the Process

More recently, changes to cryptocurrency payment processing have made it possible for some businesses to avoid directly managing secondary tokens such as TRX. Certain payment protocols allow gas fees to be paid using USDT, which may simplify the process for merchants.

Services like Mesh Wallet have emerged this year and are already supporting businesses looking to accept cryptocurrency payments while potentially offering a more cost-effective alternative to some traditional providers and the complexities of using gas tokens. 

Mesh focuses on a simple, user-first design experience, designed to make onboarding accessible for users with varying levels of cryptocurrency experience. Staff training and everyday workflows were considered throughout the app’s design process, with the aim of supporting a straightforward setup experience.

Using Mesh, users have full access to their funds, with the backup keys entirely stored and owned by the app user. Payment notifications can provide business owners with real-time updates when client payments are received, while transaction exports may simplify accounting. The absence of a separate gas token can also make the interface and transaction flow more straightforward.

Mesh also emphasizes privacy and security as part of its platform. Its app is currently available on the Apple App Store and Google Play.

What’s Next for the Industry? 

So, with cryptocurrency payments easier than ever to accept, what’s up next for the industry? As more suppliers, contractors, and platforms accept USDT directly, the need to cash out and pay in traditional currency at every step diminishes—and businesses start to hold and spend in the same currency they were paid in.

What Mesh and similar services are doing today with gas settlement mirrors exactly what payment processors have always done—pushing payment options for users, without the hefty technical knowledge needed to learn a new way of doing business. Nobody paying with a card thinks about interchange routing, and within a few years, nobody sending cryptocurrency will think about gas.

What that leaves is a shrinking gap between crypto and conventional checkout methods—settlement times and fees can compare favorably with traditional options, while the difference in operational overhead continues to narrow. 

For business owners considering whether crypto payments are worth the added complexity, that barrier may be becoming easier to manage, with early adoption potentially offering efficiency gains and opportunities to improve margins.

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