Volt, the global real-time payments platform, today announces a major evolution with the launch of stablecoin acceptance at checkout for online merchants and businesses. This development, which helps bring digital currencies firmly into the world of online payments, will unlock faster settlements for merchants and facilitate access to truly borderless commerce.  

Offering businesses the opportunity to “unchain their checkout” via one integration, the new solution will enable merchants to display ‘Pay by Crypto Wallet’ alongside ‘Pay by Bank’. Consumers that select the latter will follow Volt’s usual account-to-account payment flow; those that select the former will be asked to select their wallet ahead of checking out, bypassing the usual fiat rails.

Putting merchants in control

To aid reconciliation and settlement consistency – and ultimately to give merchants maximum control – Volt predefines which stablecoin appears at checkout, alongside a local fiat currency conversion. After consumers connect to their wallet, such as Binance, Coinbase or MetaMask, they are presented with a ‘Pay with [stablecoin type]’ button, with their pre- and post-payment balances also displayed alongside the transaction amount. Tapping this button means the consumer is approving the token transfer, which results in the payment being initiated and completed in real time.

Merchants will soon have control not only of which stablecoins to accept – namely USDC and EURC – but also how consumer funds are settled. Because Volt handles the wallet connection, token transfer and reconciliation of funds, merchants will be able to settle directly in the same asset or, as is currently the case, have the funds instantly converted to fiat – combining crypto-native flexibility with the company’s established real-time payments infrastructure.

Why consumers choose stablecoins at checkout

Stablecoins let shoppers pay from a wallet they already use, with the number of active crypto wallets worldwide now exceeding 820 million. And while not all wallet holders use stablecoins, the signs are encouraging; according to the IMF, USDC and USDT processed $23tn of volume in 2024 alone. Further data from CoinGate has revealed that stablecoins made up more than a third (35.5%) of all crypto payment transactions in 2024, while McKinsey & Company has predicted that, while stablecoins today account for less than 1% of global payment flows, they “could surpass legacy payment volumes in less than a decade”.

Commenting on Volt’s stablecoin acceptance capabilities, Steffen Vollert, Volt’s CEO and co-founder, said: “At Volt we believe in rail-agnostic, real-time payments, domestic and cross-border. This is key to European payments sovereignty, which is a huge ongoing topic of conversation. From today, we’re delivering it directly to merchants’ checkouts – enabling them to accept EURC and USDC stablecoins, alongside open banking, with the flip of a switch.

“In addition to unifying fiat and regulated stablecoins on a single, secure checkout, we’re building a unified merchant treasury solution – allowing e-commerce, travel, luxury and iGaming merchants to effortlessly experience and utilise the stablecoin future, where real time is the only time.”