NOWPayments Introduces Fiat On-Ramp

We are thrilled to announce the fiat on-ramp – a feature that will greatly expand your opportunities with NOWPayments. From now on, your customers can pay in fiat money, and you will receive cryptocurrency just as usual. You don’t need to use any acquiring service for this – our trusted fiat provider will convert fiat to crypto for you. 

What Is Fiat On-Ramp in NOWPayments? 

NOWPayments is a crypto payment gateway – we help businesses accept 160+ digital coins. Meanwhile, some merchants want to also invoice their customers with fiat but can’t or don’t want to use traditional solutions. For instance, some merchants have trouble installing acquiring services. 

NOWPayments’ fiat on-ramp allows merchants to charge their customers in fiat and receive money in cryptocurrency. The feature is integrated in the NOWPayments interface in an intuitive way, so you will understand how it works in no time. 

On-ramp is available for API and invoices. Invoices are integrated in CMS plugins as a payment tool, so fiat payments are also possible there. 

Who runs the NOWPayments’ on-ramp?

On-ramp is powered by Guardarian – an EU-based trusted partner of NOWPayments. The service has been successfully providing fiat services for ChangeNOW, our parent company, for years. It helps users buy crypto for fiat and then directs the funds to you via NOWPayments. 

The on-ramp flow in a nutshell

Fiat payments are processed in two stages: 

  1. Guardarian charges users with fiat. Customers pay the necessary amount and cover the fee: 1.5% + 2 USD. The service converts fiat to crypto and sends it to NOWPayments. 
  2. NOWPayments processes crypto received from Guardarian. At this step, the merchant pays a standard service fee of 0.5%. 

How To Use On-Ramp in API 

  1. Create a new payment in the NOWPayments API. Set the fiat currency ticker in the “pay_currency” field. 
  2. The API will send you the fiat provider’s payment link in the response. 
  3. Send this link to your user, just like you’ve been sending the other payment links before. 
  4. When a user opens this link, they have to pass a KYC check and pay Guardarian with fiat. While the payment is processed, you will see the “Fiat Processing” status in your Personal Account. 
  5. Once Guardarian receives fiat money from the user, the funds are converted into crypto and sent to NOWPayments. Our fiat provider picks a coin based on the first wallet address in your Payout Wallet list (see Settings – Payment Settings). 
  6. NOWPayments receives crypto from Guardarian and sends it to your account’s Custody (if it has been activated previously) or your crypto wallet (the first one in the Payout Wallet list).

How to Use On-Ramp in Invoices

  1. In your Personal Account, head on to Settings – Coins Settings and enable fiat currencies that you would like to accept. 
  2. Create a new payment: go to Payment Tools – Payment link, and click the “Create payment link” button. You will see the list of the chosen fiat currencies in the “Pay currency” field.
  3. Now, you can pick one of the currencies, and the user will be redirected to Guardarian right after they open your invoice. Or, you can choose “All currencies”, and the user will be able to choose how they want to pay. If they select a fiat currency, they will be redirected to our fiat provider. 
  4. The user completes a KYC check and makes a payment. 
  5. Once Guardarian receives fiat money from the user, the funds are converted into crypto and sent to NOWPayments. The service picks a coin whose wallet address is the first in your Payout Wallet list (see Settings – Payment Settings). 
  6. NOWPayments receives crypto from Guardarian and sends it to your Personal Account’s Custody (if it was activated previously) or your crypto wallet (the first one in the Payout Wallet list).
  7. You can share this payment link multiple times.

Fiat On-Ramp in the NOWPayments Flow

On-ramp is seamlessly integrated in the NOWPayments interface. You simply pick a fiat currency while creating a new payment, and then you can track its status in the Payment section of the Personal Account. It will say “Fiat processing” while Guardarian is taking care of it. As a result of all this, you receive cryptocurrency the way you always do. 

Callbacks for fiat payments will operate in a normal mode. That is, once a payment is created, our server sends the information about it to the merchant’s server: it includes the payment status, currency, amount, sum, and so on. Callbacks allow merchants to stay updated on the payment and know when they can deliver the goods to the customer. 

Fiat On-Ramp Conditions for Users 

KYC 

To pay for purchases in fiat, users need to pass a KYC check — identity verification. Our fiat provider asks users to upload a photo of their ID and a selfie in accordance with international laws. This is standard practice in the crypto market — all operations involving bank cards are subject to identity check.

Some users may feel doubtful about leaving their identity information in a service that they have never worked with before. For KYC checks, Guardarian uses Sumsub – a renowned and fully compliant service that operates in 200+ countries. The list of its clients includes Binance and Bybit exchanges. 

Users need to pass the KYC procedure only once. No checks will be required for next purchases.

Purchase limits

There is a €5,000 daily limit for customers who pay with a credit card and €7,500 if a user chooses a bank transfer. The payment method can be picked after completing the KYC check. The monthly purchase limit for customers is €15,000. 

Contact Us 

We hope this article explained well how the NOWPayments on-ramp works and how you can use it. If anything about the new feature looks unclear to you, feel free to ask us by writing to [email protected]