USD Coin (USDC)

With Shopify Payments, you can offer USDC as a payment method at checkout. USDC is a stablecoin, a form of cryptocurrency that's linked to the United States dollar, making it more stable in value than many other cryptocurrencies.

Your customers can pay using any of the 480 crypto wallets that Shopify accepts without incurring their own foreign exchange or gas fees. Gas fees are transaction fees that blockchain networks charge to process transactions, and your customers aren't charged these fees. You might also be eligible to earn credits on your USDC transactions, and your customers might receive USDC cashback on eligible purchases.

Learn more about accepting other cryptocurrencies in the Shopify checkout.

Requirements to accept USDC as a payment method

To offer USDC at checkout, you must meet the following requirements:

• You must have Shopify Payments activated on your store.
• Your store must be located in a supported Shopify Payments region in North America, Europe, or Asia-Pacific.
• The account representative of your Shopify Payments account must have a residential address in a USDC-eligible region. This requirement is in place due to regulatory and compliance standards that govern cryptocurrency payment processing.

Verify your identity

You might need to provide more information about your business before you can activate the USDC payment method. During verification, your account might remain in a Pending onboarding state. Learn more about information requirements for Shopify Payments.

Steps:

1. From your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Payments.

2. In the Shopify Payments section, click Manage.

3. Click Manage payment methods.

4. In the Crypto section, click Verify identity to enable USDC.

Considerations for activating USDC payments

Before you activate USDC as a payment method, review the following considerations:

• Depending on your region, you can receive your USDC payments in the following ways:
  • In your chosen payout currency as part of your Shopify Payments payout, paid out in line with your selected payout schedule
  • In USDC, added to your USDC balance that you must manually claim on the Finance page or the Payouts page of your Shopify admin.
• Your customers must have USDC available on a supported network to pay using USDC at checkout. They can contact their crypto wallet provider for support.
• You can't partially capture funds on orders paid for with USDC.
• Your customers can't pay for subscription products with USDC.
• Your customers can't open disputes on orders paid for using USDC.
• You can't offer post-purchase upsells when a customer pays with USDC.
• If your customer received USDC cashback on their order, then you can't issue a refund that exceeds the original order amount minus the cashback amount. A warning is displayed on the order when this restriction applies.
• If your store has a returns policy longer than 30 days, then customers who receive USDC cashback might be able to request a refund after their cashback has already been paid out.

Supported cryptocurrency networks

Shopify Payments supports USDC payments on the following networks:

• Base
• Ethereum L1
• Optimism
• Polygon
• Arbitrum

Eligible Shopify Payments regions in North America

If you use Shopify Payments in one of the following regions in North America, then you can accept USDC transactions:

Eligible Shopify Payments regions in Europe

If you use Shopify Payments in one of the following regions in Europe, then you can accept USDC transactions:

Eligible Shopify Payments regions in Asia-Pacific

To accept USDC at checkout in Asia-Pacific, you must use Shopify Payments Hong Kong.

Activate USDC with Shopify Payments

To accept USDC at checkout, you must activate the payment method in your Shopify Payments settings.

Steps:

1. From your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Payments.

2. In the Shopify Payments section, click Manage.

3. Click Manage payment methods.

4. In the Crypto section, activate the USDC option.

Choose how your USDC transactions are paid out

When you accept USDC payments at checkout, you can receive funds in your chosen payout currency as part of your Shopify Payments payouts. In some regions, you can also choose to manually claim funds in USDC and transfer them directly to your crypto wallet.

The option to receive payouts in USDC isn't available in all regions. If USDC payouts are available for your store, then the Payouts in USDC option displays in the Crypto transactions section of your Shopify Payments settings.

You can view available USDC funds and authorize a USDC payout on the Finance page and on the Payouts page of your Shopify admin.

Steps:

1. From your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Payments.

2. In the Shopify Payments section, click Manage.

3. In the Crypto transactions section, select one of the following available options:

• To convert your USDC payouts to your chosen payout currency and include them in your Shopify Payments payouts, click Payouts in local currency.
• To transfer your USDC payouts to your crypto wallet, click Payouts in USDC.

To switch from receiving USDC payments in a crypto wallet to receiving them in your Shopify Payments payout, claim any available USDC balance before switching. If you don't claim your USDC balance, and you try to claim these funds to your crypto wallet at a later date, then your settings automatically change and you receive future USDC payments into your USDC balance.

Connect a crypto wallet and claim USDC payouts

To claim USDC funds and transfer them to a crypto wallet, you must connect your crypto wallet and then authorize the transfer of your USDC funds to the connected crypto wallet. You must reconnect your crypto wallet each time you claim USDC funds.

Steps:

1. From your Shopify admin, go to Finance > Payouts.

2. In the Payout balance section, click Claim in the USDC section.

3. In the Move money section, select Connect crypto wallet.

4. In the Connect wallet dialog, select a crypto wallet.

5. Enter your crypto wallet's details and then click Connect.

6. Complete two-factor authentication.

7. Click Next.

8. In the Authorize transfer dialog, click Authorize.

Refunds when accepting USDC payments

If your customer pays with USDC and you refund their order, then how the funds are debited from your account depends on the following factors:

• If you choose to receive your payouts in USDC to your crypto wallet, then the refund is debited from your USDC balance. When refunding USDC orders, a sufficient USDC balance is required to process the refund.
• If you choose to receive your USDC funds in your chosen Shopify Payments currency, then the funds are debited from your Shopify Payments balance and are converted to USDC for the refund. In this case, you aren't required to have a USDC balance to process the refund.

Credits for USDC orders

If your customer pays for an order with USDC, then you receive a credit for the transaction. Depending on how you choose to receive your USDC payouts, these credits are applied in the following ways:

• If you choose to receive USDC payments in fiat currency, such as USD, in your Shopify Payments payouts, then the credit is applied to your next available payout. Credits are generated from your first USDC transaction.
• If you choose to receive USDC payments to your USDC balance, then the credit is added to your USDC balance.

Credits for USDC payments are automatically applied to either your Shopify Payments payouts or your USDC balance. You can view the accrued credit for each transaction in the order timeline.

If you refund an order, then the credit isn't debited from your account. If you edit an order to a higher amount, then an additional credit is generated for any subsequent charge on the order.

Customer cashback

When your customers pay with USDC on Base at checkout, they might automatically receive USDC cashback on their purchase. A gift icon is displayed next to the USDC payment option at checkout to indicate that cashback is available. Cashback is paid out in USDC on Base.

Your customers don't need to take any action to receive cashback. Cashback is distributed automatically to your customer's connected crypto wallet on Base 30 days after their purchase. Cashback rewards are capped at 100 USDC per transaction.

Refunds on orders with cashback

Cashback is distributed to your customer 30 days after their purchase. If your customer requests a refund before the 30-day cashback distribution date, then the cashback won't be paid out.

If your store has a returns policy longer than 30 days, then your customers might be able to request a full refund after their cashback has already been paid out. In this case, the refund amount that you can issue is automatically capped so your customer doesn't receive more than their original order total. A warning is displayed on the order page when this restriction applies.

Customer experience when paying with USDC

If your customers want to pay with USDC, then they need to set up an account on an exchange such as Coinbase or Crypto.com to purchase the cryptocurrency. They can purchase USDC with their local fiat currency, or exchange another cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin for USDC. They can choose to set up a wallet to hold the USDC with the exchange provider, such as a Coinbase Wallet, or use another wallet provider such as MetaMask or Trust Wallet.