Which Crypto to Accept

Bitcoin

Bitcoin remains the industry's primary payment asset. It's accepted by virtually every crypto service, and trust in the network is at its highest. That said, it isn't always a fit for micropayments: the fee depends on network load and can rise sharply during periods of high activity. In quiet periods it runs around 10 cents, but historically transactions have often gotten stuck for hours when the mempool backs up and fees spike.

Litecoin

Litecoin was built as a faster, cheaper counterpart to Bitcoin. Blocks land four times more often, and fees stay negligible even under heavy load. Despite lower popularity, LTC is still widely used specifically as a means of settlement. At Apirone it accounts for the lion's share of all transactions.

TRON

TRON could become one of the most in-demand blockchains for everyday payments, but unfortunately it isn't a popular one. Its native coin, TRX, settles almost instantly and costs very little.

Ethereum

Ethereum is the largest smart-contract ecosystem. After recent upgrades its fees are far lower than they were a few years ago, though they're still less predictable than Litecoin's or TRON's.Ethereum is the largest smart-contract ecosystem. After recent upgrades its fees are far lower than they were a few years ago, though they're still less predictable than Litecoin's or TRON's.

USDT and USDC

Stablecoins are convenient because they're essentially immune to price swings. For a merchant, that means no risk of revenue losing value within a few hours.

There is an important caveat, though: USDT and USDC are centralized tokens. Their issuers can freeze specific addresses at the request of regulators or law enforcement, and that can happen through no fault of your own. In some cases issuers have gone further than freezing — burning tokens outright, permanently removing them from circulation. For most legitimate companies this isn't an issue in practice, but the risk is fundamentally different from working with native cryptocurrencies.

These tokens also don't have their own blockchain, which means their transaction fee is tied directly to the network fee of whichever chain carries them. To withdraw funds on Tron, you pay a fee to activate each individual address, then a fee to consolidate all the payments onto one address, and finally the transfer to the recipient. For example: a client receives two payments — $20 and $15 — on two separate isolated addresses. Withdrawing that money means paying activation and consolidation separately for each address, and only then a single final transfer for the combined amount to the specified wallet.

Of all the chains listed here, this is the most expensive and least efficient option — see our full breakdown of USDT network fees on Tron for the complete picture.

On Ethereum, the same operation costs an order of magnitude less. No address activation is needed, and the network fee itself is more than 10 times cheaper.

Gram (TON)

The TON ecosystem is growing fast thanks to its integration with Telegram. Transfers settle in seconds and fees are minimal, but payments in Gram aren't widely adopted, and its volatility (as with the former Ton) is too high relative to other currencies.