Online Retail Is Racing to Stay Competitive
With eCommerce now accounting for roughly a fifth of global retail sales in 2026, online stores are under real pressure to find competitive advantages that help them keep pace. Accepting crypto as a payment option is one approach some merchants are exploring, and the shift is part of a much larger trend. Spending on the underlying technology behind crypto transactions is projected to grow from USD 12.3 Billion in 2026 to USD 48.7 Billion by 2033, expanding at more than 22% a year, with payments and money transfers representing the single biggest growth opportunity inside that blockchain infrastructure. Beyond the competitive angle, crypto payments may also offer benefits for data security, supply chain transparency, fraud exposure and the checkout experience, alongside trade-offs that are covered below. According to the Coherent Market Insights (CMI) report, this growth reflects rising demand for secure, transparent and decentralised digital transactions across industries. The rest of this piece covers the practical considerations of accepting crypto, along with the market trends, segments, regions and players behind blockchain.
Privacy and Security at Checkout
Distrust in how a site handles credit card or personal information is one of the commonly cited reasons shoppers abandon a cart. Crypto transactions are recorded on a blockchain, which makes them difficult to alter once confirmed. They are generally pseudonymous rather than fully anonymous, since transactions are tied to wallet addresses on a public ledger. For buyers, this can mean sharing less personal and card information with the merchant, though it does not remove the need for sound security practices around wallets and accounts.
Potential for Lower Fees
Transaction fees are a real cost for any online or offline merchant. Card payment gateways such as Stripe, Square or PayPal typically charge a percentage of each purchase plus, in many cases, a fixed fee, a cost most merchants build into their pricing. Crypto payment processors commonly quote lower rates, often in the range of 0% to 1% of transaction value, which could free up margin to improve profit or offer better pricing. Actual costs vary by provider and can include network fees and currency conversion charges, so merchants should compare total costs rather than headline rates.
Money Moves Faster
Depending on the payment system currently in use, a transaction can take anywhere from a few hours to several days to fully settle, which can quietly strain cash flow for a growing business. Crypto transactions can settle faster, sometimes within minutes, although confirmation times depend on the network and how busy it is at the time. Where this speed holds, it can reduce the delay that ties up working capital.
Cross-Border Considerations
Cryptocurrencies operate on decentralised networks that are not controlled by any single government or central authority, meaning funds can move directly between buyer and seller without an intermediary like PayPal or Venmo in the middle, although many merchants still use a payment processor to handle the conversion. That can simplify some international sales and reduce card-related cross-border fees. However, crypto prices are themselves volatile, so currency risk is replaced by price risk unless payments are converted immediately, and local regulations and taxes still apply to cross-border sales.
Fraud and Chargebacks
The growth of eCommerce has brought real opportunity, but it has also brought a sharp rise in fraud. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission reported that consumers lost USD 15.9 billion to fraud in 2025, up from more than USD 12 billion in 2024, based on about 3 million fraud reports. Because confirmed crypto transactions are irreversible and cannot be disputed through a card-style chargeback process, merchants face less exposure to chargebacks. The same irreversibility means buyers have little recourse if they are scammed, and reporting on the FTC's testimony notes that cryptocurrency was among the leading payment methods for reported fraud losses in 2025, so clear communication and secure checkout practices remain important.
What to Weigh Before Making the Switch
Crypto payments come with real tradeoffs worth planning for: price volatility that can shift a coin's value significantly within a day, tax obligations tied to crypto transactions, the need to hold some crypto assets as a merchant, more limited buyer protection compared with credit cards, and a regulatory landscape that is still catching up in many regions. None of these are reasons to avoid crypto entirely, but they are reasons to go in with a clear plan rather than switching on a whim. The CMI report notes that regulatory frameworks in North America and Europe have matured, while regulatory uncertainty remains a challenge in emerging regions.
Three market trends shaping the blockchain market
1. Scalability and hyperscaler services: The CMI report says large cloud providers such as Microsoft and Amazon launched advanced blockchain services in 2025 to support higher transaction volumes. The impact is that scalability, a long-standing constraint for payment use cases, is being addressed through managed infrastructure.
2. Regulatory maturity and compliance: Regulatory frameworks in North America and Europe have matured, which the report says is encouraging greater enterprise adoption. The impact is more confidence among businesses and a stronger focus on compliance-ready blockchain services, though uncertainty persists in emerging regions.
3. Blockchain-as-a-Service (BaaS): The report's analysts point to growth in BaaS offerings, supported by cloud adoption and subscription-based pricing. The impact is lower entry barriers for small and mid-sized businesses, which is directly relevant to merchants that want to add crypto payments without building their own infrastructure.
Market segmentation: what the CMI report covers
The CMI blockchain market report segments the market by type (public, private, hybrid, consortium and others), by application (payments and money transfer, supply chain management, healthcare, government services, identity management and others), by deployment mode (on-premises, cloud-based, hybrid and others) and by region (North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Middle East and Africa). For merchants, the type and application segments are the most relevant, since they show which networks and use cases are driving payment adoption.
Sub-segment analysis
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Payments and money transfer (application)
This is the dominant application segment and, according to the report, the area with the largest growth opportunity. Growth is driven by the rise of decentralised finance and cryptocurrency adoption, alongside innovations in cross-border payment solutions that aim to improve speed and security, and by interest in transparency and cost-efficiency. Applications include crypto checkout options for online stores, remittances and cross-border transfers by financial institutions. As the leading application, it is the segment most closely tied to the topic of this post.
Public blockchains hold a 58% share, according to the report, because their open and transparent networks suit decentralised finance and cryptocurrency applications. These are the networks on which most consumer crypto payments are made, which is why a merchant accepting coins is typically interacting with a public chain. The report notes that private and hybrid blockchains are gaining traction for enterprise needs, with private blockchains the fastest-growing type. Public blockchains remain the largest contributor to overall market revenue.
U.S. Market Analysis
The U.S. is a global leader in blockchain according to the CMI report. Adoption is driven by widespread use in financial services and a robust cloud infrastructure. The report notes that in 2025 major U.S. banks implemented smart contract platforms to streamline cross-border payments, and that technology providers such as Microsoft and IBM offer scalable enterprise solutions. Government initiatives exploring blockchain for digital identity verification, supply chain transparency and public record management also support adoption, and the report credits strong investment, innovation and a favourable regulatory environment. For online merchants, the practical picture is more cautious: tax treatment, reporting duties and state-level rules for accepting crypto can differ, so it is worth confirming current requirements with a qualified adviser before launching a crypto payment option.
Key Market Participants
The CMI report profiles IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, Chain, Amazon Web Services, R3 Corda, Ripple Labs and Hyperledger. The report says several leading players have strengthened their positions through partnerships and technology investments, for example IBM's collaboration with major banks on blockchain-enabled trade finance platforms, and cloud providers' expanded blockchain services for enterprises. Ripple Labs is known for its focus on payments, which links it closely to the payments segment discussed above. A recent industry development cited in the report is the launch in May 2026 of a blockchain-based bulk commodity trading services platform in Shanghai, supporting digital trade infrastructure in the Yangtze River Delta.
Conclusion
Accepting crypto can be one option for an online store looking to broaden its payment choices, provided the costs, risks and regulations are weighed first. With the blockchain market projected to grow at 22.5% a year through 2033, the infrastructure behind crypto payments is likely to keep developing.
