Many businesses nowadays accept cryptocurrencies as payment. Moreover, considering the recent growth of the crypto market, the number of such companies is expected to rise drastically. While accepting cryptocurrencies may not be as complex as it seems, even the most seasoned crypto businesses still make mistakes. Here is a list of the most common mistakes companies tend to make when they accept crypto payments.
Key Points:
- Merchants accepting crypto have to remember to pay taxes.
- Merchants need to offer more crypto payment options.
- NOWPayments assists merchants in making their crypto payment gateways safer.
Using custodial wallets
The security of your crypto funds should always be your priority. Yet, businesses frequently forget about it and accept cryptocurrency as payment using their crypto address from custodial wallets, which control the private keys of their clients. Wallets of crypto exchanges are one of the main examples of custodial wallets. Basically, if you accept Bitcoin using the address generated for you automatically by the crypto exchange, the chances are you utilize a custodial wallet. To solve the problem, you need to transfer all of your funds to a non-custodial wallet address and keep your private key away from the eyes of exchanges and everyone else.
Limiting your crypto payment method selection
Accepting cryptocurrency as payment is great, but offering only one crypto payment option might not be the most reasonable way to do it. The crypto market is full of amazing cryptocurrencies, and each of them has its following of dedicated investors. Many of these people always get excited about new use cases of their favorite coins. So, when businesses avoid diversifying their crypto payment options, they end up missing out on the potential profits which may come from people owning different altcoins. That is why, to increase crypto revenue, it is always important to deploy several crypto payment gateways and not limit one’s selection to Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Not paying taxes
Every business that uses crypto payments understands that crypto transactions are, to a considerable extent, anonymous. Yet, the anonymity of crypto does not mean a lack of accountability. In other words, when accepting cryptocurrency, it is important to pay taxes on your crypto profits. Companies that avoid doing it may face legal consequences. Therefore, it is essential that every business wishing to deploy a crypto payment gateway first checks the tax laws of their country. Of course, there are cryptocurrencies such as Monero, which make it extremely difficult for tax agencies to track your crypto holdings. Yet, not every client is ready to pay for your products or services with Monero.
Selling cryptocurrency on dodgy platforms
Many merchants, after learning how to accept crypto payments, instantly decide to find ways to convert their crypto profits to fiat. Quite often, after typing in on Google “how to exchange crypto to dollars,” they get search results leading them to questionable websites that offer unrealistic exchange rates and eventually steal crypto from naive merchants. There are also platforms that feature low exchange rates and exorbitant fees, but people still use them because they do not know about better options. It is obvious that such websites and platforms are simply scammers and profiteers. That is why businesses that accept crypto need to exchange their funds only on trusted platforms such as ChangeNOW or use built-in solutions like NOWPayments’ Crypto-to-Fiat auto conversion feature.
Not using crypto payment gateway services
It is easy to accept cryptocurrency when you have a small offline business, but it gets quite tricky once your company grows big and establishes its online presence. Keeping track of every transaction becomes nearly impossible and picking the right crypto address for each client gets tiresome. Luckily, there are services that offer crypto payment gateway solutions that can automate all of the crypto payments made by your clients. For instance, NOWPayments’ crypto payment plugins enable merchants using platforms such as PrestaShop, WooCommerce, Magento 2, WHMCS, OpenCart, Zen Cart, Shopify, and Shopware to accept crypto payments without the need to manually issue crypto invoices or send their crypto addresses to each client.
Conclusion
Many merchants that accept cryptocurrency as payment tend to make certain mistakes. That is why it is always vital to learn more about crypto security to avoid common issues. NOWPayments facilitates the process of accepting crypto for merchants and offers reliable tools for featuring a crypto payment gateway.