Why 15% of Our Merchants' Sales Come Through Crypto (vs 2% Industry Average)

When most people think about crypto payments, they assume it's a niche option that maybe 1-2% of customers will use. And based on industry-wide data, that's roughly accurate. The average e-commerce store that "accepts crypto" sees around 2% of transactions go through crypto rails.

At GroundedPay, our merchants are seeing something very different.

Across our merchant base, the median share of total sales volume processed through crypto checkout is 15.3%. Some merchants — particularly in supplements, CBD, and digital goods — are seeing north of 25%. That's not a rounding error. It's a signal.

So why the massive gap between the industry average and what we see? We dug into the data.

Reason 1: Our Merchants Attract Crypto-Native Customers

The biggest factor is selection bias, but not in the way you might think. Merchants who come to GroundedPay are often in industries where traditional payment processing is unreliable. CBD, supplements, digital goods, adult content — these are categories where customers have experienced broken checkouts, failed payments, and stores that disappear overnight.

The customers who shop at these stores are disproportionately crypto-aware. They're often in the 25-45 demographic, comfortable with digital wallets, and actively looking for stores that offer crypto checkout because they know it means the store is serious about staying online.

Crypto checkout becomes a trust signal. It tells the customer: "We're not going to disappear next month because our payment processor dropped us."

Reason 2: Stablecoins Changed Everything

The 2% industry average was established when "crypto payments" meant paying with Bitcoin — a volatile asset with 10-minute confirmation times and unpredictable fees. Nobody wants to spend Bitcoin on a $50 purchase when it might be worth $60 tomorrow.

Stablecoins flipped this completely. USDC and USDT are pegged to the dollar. There's no volatility risk, no reason to "hold" instead of spend. For the customer, paying with USDC feels just like paying with dollars — because it is dollars, just on a blockchain.

On our platform, 82% of crypto payments are in stablecoins (USDC and USDT), with the remainder split between ETH and SOL. This aligns with broader stablecoin adoption trends: stablecoins now process more transfer volume than Visa.

Reason 3: The Checkout Experience Isn't Terrible Anymore

Early crypto payment experiences were awful. Copy a long hexadecimal address, paste it into a wallet, manually enter the exact amount to 8 decimal places, wait 30 minutes for confirmation, and hope the exchange rate didn't shift. No wonder adoption was stuck at 2%.

Modern crypto checkout — and we spent a lot of engineering effort on this — looks like any other payment flow. The customer clicks "Pay with Crypto," sees a QR code or a one-click wallet connect button, approves the transaction in their wallet, and it's done. Stablecoin payments on Polygon or Base confirm in under 10 seconds.

When the experience is comparable to card checkout, adoption goes up dramatically.

Reason 4: Merchants Actually Promote It

Here's a subtle but important factor. Many stores that "accept crypto" bury it behind three clicks on a settings page. The crypto option is technically available but practically invisible.

Our most successful merchants do the opposite. They put "We accept crypto" on their homepage. They mention it in email campaigns. Some offer a 3-5% discount for crypto payments (which they can afford because they're saving on processing fees and eliminating chargebacks).

The merchants in our top quartile for crypto adoption share these characteristics:

• Crypto payment option is visible on the product page, not just at checkout
• They offer a small discount (2-5%) for paying with crypto
• They mention crypto acceptance in marketing emails and social media
• They accept multiple chains (Ethereum, Polygon, Base, Solana) so customers can choose the cheapest option

Reason 5: Zero Chargebacks Create a Positive Feedback Loop

This one is underappreciated. For merchants in high-chargeback categories, every crypto sale is pure profit compared to a card sale that might get disputed. A supplement merchant told us:

"Our card chargeback rate was 3.2%. On a $100 order, between the chargeback fee, the lost product, and the processing fee, a disputed order costs us $140. Every crypto sale eliminates that risk entirely. We'd give a 10% discount for crypto and still come out ahead."

This math creates a rational incentive for merchants to actively steer customers toward crypto. And when merchants actively promote crypto checkout, adoption goes from 2% to 15%+.

What This Means for Your Business

If you're thinking about adding crypto payments, the data suggests the opportunity is much larger than the 2% headline number implies. But the gap between 2% and 15% isn't automatic — it comes from three things:

1. Using a checkout experience that doesn't suck. QR codes, wallet connect, fast confirmation on Layer 2 chains. If your crypto checkout feels like 2019, expect 2019 adoption rates.
2. Supporting stablecoins prominently. USDC and USDT should be front and center, not Bitcoin.
3. Actually promoting it. A buried crypto option gets buried results. Make it visible, offer a small incentive, and watch adoption climb month over month.

The merchants who adopt crypto now are capturing a growing customer segment that their competitors are ignoring. And every crypto sale is a sale with zero chargeback risk, instant settlement, and no processor who can shut it off.

The 2% average is where the industry is. Fifteen percent is where it's going. The question is whether you want to get there early or late.

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