When a buyer pays for an order in cryptocurrency, the blockchain records the funds leaving their wallet. But in the online store, the order may still show as unpaid. The deal ends with a support request: the seller has to sort out the transfer while the buyer tries to figure out where their money went.
Many online stores and services do not account for this risk when implementing cryptocurrency payments. A natural question arises: what should a business do if a transaction goes wrong and the funds get "stuck" between the parties to the transaction?
Business interest in settlements in digital assets is steadily growing. By October, business and corporate programs account for almost 17% of transaction volume on stablecoin-linked cards for the 2026 fiscal year — direct evidence that the corporate sector is increasingly integrating cryptocurrency into payment processes.
Why a failed payment can cost $20 or more
A recent study among 150 executives of financial organizations showed that 37% of respondents have costs exceeding $20 for each unsuccessful or delayed transaction. Banks and e-commerce companies have different processes and cost structures, so $20 cannot be considered a universal rate for a failure in cryptocurrency payment. But the essence of the problem is familiar to many.
The buyer sends the wrong token, selects a different network, or forgets the required destination tag. Even if the money arrives, a mismatch of accounts can block access to the purchased service. Someone has to track the transfer and reconcile the order — every stage between the store and the payment service consumes employees' working time.
Why a cryptocurrency refund can drag on for days
An analysis of online store refunds for the period from September 2025 to August 2026 showed that the median interval between the first payment and the creation of a refund was 3.7 days. This also includes the time while the customer themselves decides whether a refund is needed.
For refunds processed from June 17 to August 31, when confirmation by e-mail was declined, the median delay between creating the request and sending the funds was 21 minutes versus 4.3 hours if confirmation was required. Simplifying the procedure saves time, but sending to the wrong wallet address is another risk.
What a crypto payment gateway should be able to do
Modern payment providers take responsibility for payment problems. In one documented case, a $105 ETH transfer sent by mistake was completed manually — the seller received the money about a minute after the customer confirmed. In another case, a bitcoin refund of more than $400 took about two days from the first request to confirmation of receipt. In a third, the payment had already gone through but was linked to a different e-mail: support responded within 12 minutes and helped resolve the access issue; no funds had to be transferred.
Providers report that in 97–98% of cases the first chat response arrives within three minutes, although full resolution of the issue may take longer. The gateway sends payment status notifications and, if desired, automatically processes compatible deposits in the wrong network. In some cases, refunds require checks, and recovery of funds is not always possible.
The seller should run a test: offer a potential provider a real failed payment and find out who tracks the transfer, who confirms refunds, and who verifies that the customer's problem is resolved. In parallel, it is important to consider how much time employees spend on each incident and what the transaction fee is. For companies considering accepting cryptocurrency, the hours of work saved may prove no less important than the transaction fee.
Cryptalist analysis: The growth in the share of stablecoins in corporate settlements to ~17% turns operational errors from a technical trifle into a systemic cost factor. For institutional participants, the key criterion for choosing payment infrastructure becomes not only the fee but also the speed of resolving exceptions — this is precisely the parameter that will determine the competitiveness of crypto payment gateways in the coming cycles.