Payment processor Shift4 will equip all of its merchants to accept cryptocurrency and stablecoins, the United States-based company has announced. Shift4 got its start in crypto by buying The Giving Block, a platform for donating cryptocurrencies to nonprofits, in 2022.
Shift4 developed a payment solution that expanded beyond The Giving Block and will now target e-commerce, restaurants, hotels, entertainment venues, airlines and gaming. Shift4 works with over 200,000 merchants worldwide.
Meeting divergent demand
Shift4 identified three areas where it expected to see demand for crypto payments. The first was for luxury goods bought by people who “made a lot of money in crypto” and like to use it.
Second was in developing countries where credit card usage is low. “This helps us with our global expansion plans to service regions like Latam, Africa and APAC,” the company said in a statement.
Finally, industries that are plagued by fraudulent chargebacks may prefer cryptocurrency because chargebacks — the practice of disputing and reversing charges for purchases — are impossible with crypto. The company said:
“The Giving Block has been doing this [processing cryptocurrency payments] since 2018 and continues to be the [philanthropy] market leader. Now we’ll apply what we learned to our other verticals.”
Users will be able to link to their crypto wallets during the purchase process on Shift4 thanks to its integration with the cryptocurrency transfer platform Mesh. “Merchants will never touch crypto,” Shift4 promised.
The Shift4 cryptocurrency payment flowchart. Source: Shift4
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Full rollout next year
Pilot processing products are being launched this year with the expectation that Shift4’s entire merchant base will be covered in 2025. The cost of Shift4’s new service will depend on the payment volume, similar to traditional payments.
Source: Shift4
TAO Group luxury hospitality provider and Blade helicopter and charter jet operator were mentioned as early adopters of the new service.
Shift4 announced its acquisition of The Giving Block in March 2022. It paid $54 million in cash and stock for the platform, which enabled over 1,300 nonprofit organizations to receive donations in crypto at that time.
In addition to the cash and stock upfront, Shift4 promised up to $246 million in earnout for the organization. Earnout is a bonus paid for the good performance of a business after its sale.
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