CoinGate

03/06/2026

If your crypto payment provider is still operating under a transitional exemption, you might want to check the calendar.

Since MiCA became fully applicable, every crypto-asset service provider in the EU now needs proper authorization. The transitional period under Article 143 runs out on July 1, 2026. After that, any provider without a MiCA license simply cannot legally offer crypto services in the EU.

ESMA made its stance clear: "There are no low-risk CASPs." Every provider, regardless of size, must undergo thorough authorization. No shortcuts.

For businesses that rely on these providers, this creates real exposure:

• Counterparty risk. An unlicensed provider isn’t subject to the capital requirements or governance standards MiCA imposes. If something goes wrong, there’s no regulatory safety net.
• Banking relationships. Banks increasingly classify unlicensed crypto operators as high-risk. Enhanced due diligence followed by relationship termination is the typical response.
• Enterprise deals. Larger clients and regulated entities now routinely require proof of licensing during vendor due diligence. No license means no deal.

On top of MiCA, providers that handle fiat (settlements, withdrawals, merchant payouts) also need a Payment Institution license under PSD. Most providers hold one or the other. Very few hold both.

We obtained both our MiCA and PI licenses in 2025. We’ve been based in Vilnius since 2014 with over a decade of regulatory track record. That combination is not common in this space.



Full analysis, including how to verify your provider’s licensing status →

MiCA is fully applicable and transition periods are ending. Learn why EU-licensed crypto payment providers with dual MiCA + PI licensing are becoming a requirement for B2B partnerships.

02/06/2026

Most people know us as a crypto payment processor. You accept crypto, we settle it in EUR, done.

But that’s only one part of what the platform does.

For businesses, CoinGate also works as a crypto on-ramp and off-ramp. You can deposit EUR to buy crypto directly in your account, convert between numerous cryptocurrencies, sell crypto back to EUR, and withdraw to your bank via SEPA. All from one dashboard.

Why does that matter?

Because crypto treasury management is becoming a real operational need for businesses. Some companies want to hold stablecoins for flexibility. Some need to pay suppliers or affiliates in crypto. Others want to convert incoming crypto payments partially instead of settling everything into fiat.

With CoinGate, you can do all of that without juggling multiple platforms:

• Deposit EUR or crypto into your account
• Convert between crypto and fiat at a flat 1% fee
• Withdraw to your bank account or external wallets
• Send crypto and stablecoins to others, individually or in bulk

It’s the full cycle. Accept payments, manage your crypto holdings, and move funds wherever they need to go.

01/06/2026

"But what about refunds?"

It’s one of the major questions businesses ask when considering crypto payments. And it’s a good one. Blockchain transactions are irreversible. So how do you give money back?

The answer: a crypto refund is not a reversal. It’s a new outbound transaction that returns value to the customer. The original order stays unchanged. The refund gets its own ID, its own lifecycle, and its own status tracking.

At low volume, you can handle this manually from the dashboard. But once refund volumes grow or you need them to sync with support tools, accounting systems, and customer notifications, manual workflows stop scaling.

That’s where our refund API comes in handy.

You specify the order ID, the refund amount (in your pricing currency, not crypto units), the customer’s wallet address, and the network. We handle the conversion and send the funds. The refund moves through defined statuses (pending, processing, completed, rejected) and you can set up callbacks for real-time updates so your systems react automatically.

No manual reconciliation, delayed customer communication, or guessing where a refund stands.

For businesses already running crypto payments at scale, this turns refunds from an operational exception into predictable infrastructure.

28/05/2026

You integrated crypto payments. Everything works. But the adoption numbers are... quiet.

Here’s a common reason: your customers simply don’t know the option exists.

Unlike cards or PayPal, people don’t automatically expect crypto to be available. If it’s buried at the bottom of your payment list or missing from your homepage entirely, most visitors will never discover it.

A few things that actually move the needle:

• Show it early. A "We accept Bitcoin & crypto" line on your homepage or header strip. Crypto logos in your footer alongside Visa and Mastercard. A note near pricing or subscription tables. Customers should see it before they reach checkout.

• Explain it simply. Add a FAQ entry: "Do you accept crypto?" with a short, direct answer. Consider a dedicated page outlining how it works. This also helps with SEO when people search for "[your brand] crypto payment."

• Don’t bury it at checkout. Show "Cryptocurrency" alongside other payment options. Add a short line like "Pay with crypto via CoinGate" so customers know what to expect. Never hide it under "Other."

• Test what works. Run a simple A/B test. Homepage banner vs. no banner. Different wording. Different placement in the payment list. Track the share of orders paid in crypto and iterate.

When businesses make their crypto option visible, adoption follows. Hiding it means missed sales from customers who would have chosen it if they’d seen it.

27/05/2026

Crypto payments rarely fail because of the technology. They fail because the conversation reaches the board unprepared.

Most boards are not against crypto. They’re cautious about decisions that introduce new risk without clear ownership. And when the proposal sounds like "we should try this because it’s innovative," the discussion stalls before it starts.

Here’s what actually happens in those conversations:

The first question is never about crypto. It’s about why this is being proposed at all. Is it driven by real customer demand, competitive pressure, or internal enthusiasm? The strongest answers ground the idea in business reality that already exists.

Risk is the real topic. Not whether risk exists, but whether it’s understood and bounded. Boards don’t want to hear that crypto is low-risk. They want to see that risk is defined, segmented, and allocated. Which risks does the provider absorb? Which stay with you?

Finance quietly decides the outcome. Even when finance isn’t leading the discussion, their comfort level often determines the result. If they can’t explain how crypto payments move through the books, approval is unlikely. Involve them early.

Doing nothing is also a decision. Boards compare the risk of acting with the risk of not acting. When the downside of inaction is specific and measurable, crypto stops looking optional.

26/05/2026

What happens after a customer pays you in Bitcoin?

For most businesses, that question doesn’t come up until after the integration is live. The checkout works, the funds arrive, and then someone on the finance team asks: where did this money go, what’s it worth now, and how do we actually use it?

That gap between accepting a crypto payment and using those funds is where treasury management lives. And it comes down to four connected decisions:

• Receive – rate locking at the moment of payment so the quoted price matches what you get
• Hold – do you keep some crypto (stablecoins for flexibility, BTC/ETH as strategic exposure), or convert everything?
• Convert – instant fiat settlement, hybrid splits, or full crypto hold, depending on your expense structure
• Withdraw – SEPA to your bank, crypto to your wallet, or perhaps crypto payouts to suppliers and partners instead?

Most businesses starting out default to 100% instant fiat conversion. And that’s the right call. It eliminates volatility, keeps accounting clean, and makes crypto payments behave exactly like card payments from a treasury perspective.

But as volumes grow, many shift to a hybrid approach. Converting 70% to EUR for operations while holding 30% in USDC for crypto payouts, for example. It avoids unnecessary back-and-forth conversion and gives you more flexibility.

The businesses that struggle with crypto treasury are usually the ones without a defined settlement strategy. They receive crypto, leave it sitting, and react when prices move. A clear policy, automated where possible, removes most of the stress.

25/05/2026

Your company starts accepting crypto payments. The first transactions go through, customers are happy, everything works.

Then your finance team opens the books and asks: how do we actually account for this?

It’s a fair question. And the answer depends almost entirely on one decision: do you convert to fiat instantly, or do you hold crypto?

If you convert instantly, your accounting barely changes. The customer pays in Bitcoin, the processor converts it to EUR in seconds, and what lands in your account looks identical to a card payment. No fair value adjustments. No unrealized gains or losses. No end-of-period revaluation. Just revenue in your reporting currency with a clear timestamp.

One of our clients, PlainProxies, where 45-50% of all payments come through crypto, reported saving over 10 hours per month on accounting after switching to instant fiat settlement. Crypto payments just appeared as EUR deposits. Their finance workflows didn’t need to change at all.

Holding crypto is a different story. Under FASB ASU 2023-08 (effective since December 2024), crypto must be measured at fair value each reporting period with changes flowing through net income. Every price swing shows up on your income statement. Under IFRS, the treatment is even more conservative.

On top of that, EU reporting is tightening. CARF and DAC8 are entering force, requiring crypto-asset service providers to report transaction data to tax authorities. Documentation standards are rising.

For most businesses, the practical takeaway is simple: instant fiat settlement removes the complexity. Choose it as your default, and crypto payments become just another line on your books.

21/05/2026

How much does a single international wire transfer actually cost your business?

If you've never added it up, here's what a typical SWIFT payment looks like:

• Sending bank fee: $25–$50
• Intermediary bank fee: $15–$30 (per hop, and most transfers involve at least one)
• Receiving bank fee: $10–$25 (often deducted from the amount, so the recipient gets less)
• FX markup: 0.5–3% above mid-market rate, rarely disclosed transparently

Total: $50–$120+ per transfer. And it takes 3 to 5 business days. Sometimes longer.

Now compare that with a stablecoin payout on a Layer 2 network. The blockchain fee is under $0.01. Settlement happens in minutes. It works on Sundays, on holidays, at 3 AM. The recipient needs a wallet address, not a bank account and a SWIFT code.

At scale, the difference stops being incremental. A company sending 500 payouts per month via SWIFT at an average cost of $75 each spends roughly $450,000 per year on transfer fees alone. The same 500 payouts via stablecoin transfers cost under $2,500 in network fees.

This is not to say SWIFT is obsolete. For large, infrequent fiat-to-fiat transfers between established banking relationships, it still makes sense. But for frequent international payouts to contractors, affiliates, suppliers, or partners, the math is hard to argue with.

19/05/2026

If you process recurring crypto deposits from the same clients, you already know the problem.

Every deposit requires a new invoice. Every invoice generates a new address. The address expires after one use. Your client has to request a fresh one next time. Repeat this hundreds of times a month and you end up with a reconciliation mess that nobody asked for.

Now think about how bank transfers work. You give your client an account number once. They use it whenever they need to send funds. No new numbers, no expiration, no friction.

That is exactly the idea behind dedicated deposit addresses. One blockchain address per client, permanently assigned, always active. They deposit to the same address every time. Your system detects each incoming payment and attributes it automatically.

A business with 300 clients depositing weekly generates 15,600 unique addresses per year under the invoice model. With dedicated addresses, it's 300. Total. The operational gap between those two numbers is where real cost hides.

We're building this at CoinGate. We call it payment channels, and it's designed for businesses that have outgrown the one-invoice-per-deposit model. B2B platforms, ad networks, marketplaces, trading venues... any operation where the same clients deposit repeatedly.

18/05/2026

Last Thursday, we turned our ping pong room into a camera obscura.

Kęstutis Pleita, a professional musician in Lithuania's National Opera symphony orchestra and a devoted analog photographer, visited our office and showed us how light actually works. Not in a PowerPoint kind of way. In a "seal every window, sit in complete darkness, and watch the city skyline appear upside down on the wall" kind of way.

All it takes is a dark room and a tiny hole. The same principle people figured out over a thousand years ago. Also the same principle your eyes use right now to read this post.

Kęstutis develops his own film, prints in his personal darkroom, and has held four solo exhibitions. He brought antique bellows cameras, matchbox cameras, coffee tin cameras. Some of us watched a photograph slowly appear on a blank sheet of paper. Real darkroom magic, live.

In a world that runs on screens and instant everything, spending an afternoon in a dark room learning how a single ray of light can create an image felt... different. The good kind of different.

These are the moments that remind you there are people out there who still do things by hand, slowly, with intention. And that slowing down once in a while is worth it.