5 companies building infrastructure behind crypto payments

Daniel Alecio

Sat, February 21, 2026 at 2:18 AM GMT+9 9 min read

Most people are comfortable paying with cash or cards, and are just getting used to tap-to-pay. Now, crypto is entering the mix.

Like credit cards in their early days, crypto payments once felt foreign and complicated. And just as cards faced skepticism decades ago, crypto payments are facing familiar hurdles of fraud concerns, merchant resistance over fees, regulatory uncertainty, and operational friction.

Credit cards didn’t become mainstream overnight. Their mass adoption began only in the 1980s and became a normal payment method in the 1990s. Their breakthrough came when fraud detection improved, electronic authorization systems streamlined approvals, payment networks standardized, and consumer trust strengthened.

Related: Are Crypto and Credit Cards More Alike Than We Think?

Crypto payments are now moving through a similar maturation phase.

Today’s crypto payment platforms are built to address volatility, compliance and usability challenges. They integrate seamlessly into existing checkout systems and allow merchants to instantly convert crypto into fiat or stablecoins, reducing exposure to price swings while keeping the benefits of blockchain-based transactions.

A critical driver of this shift is stablecoins.

A stablecoin is a cryptocurrency designed to maintain a stable value, typically pegged 1:1 to a fiat currency like the U.S. dollar. If a stablecoin is dollar-backed, one token is intended to equal roughly $1.

Unlike volatile cryptocurrencies, stablecoins are not meant to fluctuate wildly. They offer the advantages of blockchain infrastructure such as faster settlement, lower transaction costs, cross-border efficiency and 24/7 availability, without the unpredictability that deters merchants and consumers.

In many ways, stablecoins function as the bridge between traditional finance and crypto-native payments.

As infrastructure improves and user experience becomes frictionless, crypto payments are beginning to feel less experimental and more practical.

Here’s a closer look at five platforms helping push crypto payments into the mainstream.

Related: Explained: What is a stablecoin?

NOWPayments

Crypto works technically. But businesses need it to work operationally. NOWPayments focuses on closing that gap.

NOWPayments positions itself as a crypto payment gateway built for merchants who want optionality. Rather than locking businesses into a single blockchain or token standard, the platform supports over 350 cryptocurrencies and provides automatic coin conversion and fixed-rate options to reduce volatility. This allows customers to pay in one asset while merchants choose how they ultimately receive funds.

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Merchants can opt to settle in crypto, stablecoins, or convert into fiat. The blockchain handles the transfer of value; NOWPayments handles pricing logic, routing, and settlement coordination behind the scenes.

NOWPayments highlights its value for businesses that face high fees, chargebacks, or restrictions, such as SaaS platforms, hosting providers, VPN services, gaming platforms, and high-risk merchants.

Their Head of PR, Alexandr Yarovinski, says,

“Cryptocurrency eliminates chargebacks entirely and allows merchants to receive payments directly, improving both cash flow and operational efficiency.”

For many companies, the hesitation around crypto isn’t philosophical; it’s practical. Managing multiple wallets, handling exchange rate fluctuations, and reconciling on-chain transactions with traditional accounting systems can quickly become burdensome. NOWPayments abstracts much of that complexity away.

Two deterrents for companies using crypto are risk and volatility. NOWPayments has a non-custodial architecture (users maintain full ownership of their funds) to combat this fear of risk. Yarovinski says that this eliminates custodial risk and makes sure that businesses are not exposed to potential third-party asset freezes or restrictions. As mentioned earlier, NOWPayments provides automatic coin conversion to combat volatility too.

NOWPayments is striving to make digital asset payments feel ordinary and become a welcomed checkout experience, not a leap into unfamiliar territory.

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Banxa

Banxa works at the boundary of trading platforms and wallet providers. It builds the rails that allow users to move between bank accounts, cards, and blockchain networks without friction.

“This is about making a new asset class accessible to everyone using interfaces and payment rails people already trust and use.”

In practical terms, that means handling what most users never see, i.e., compliance across jurisdictions, banking partnerships, payment processing, and local currency conversion.

Crypto may settle on-chain, but it rarely begins or ends there. Banxa’s Chief of Growth, Shaun Heng, notes that the company has spent more than a decade securing licenses across key markets and embedding compliance directly into the payment flow.

Banxa is integrated into crypto apps for seamless crypto and fiat conversion. They do not compete with crypto platforms; they empower them.

“When crypto is embedded properly, it simply becomes invisible technology, allowing customers to engage with the business as they always have. This is why merchants are choosing us today.”

Rather than positioning itself as an alternative to banks, Banxa is building connective tissue between the old system and the new one. That work is less visible than token launches or protocol upgrades, but invisible is good here.

Related: ‘Compliance is crucial’ for banks to survive in the crypto industry, exec says

Triple-A

In a world where payments are expected to settle instantly, reliably, and invisibly, Triple-A is building the rails that make that possible with digital currencies.

Triple-A enables businesses to send and receive payments and payouts in stablecoins and other digital assets without exposing them to price volatility or operational complexity. The company is a licensed payments institution in the U.S., Europe, and Singapore.

“Beyond access to new users, stablecoin payments offer advantages that traditional payment rails cannot easily match, such as near-instant cross-border settlement and lower transaction costs due to the lack of intermediaries.”

For merchants and marketplaces, the challenge isn’t just accepting crypto, it’s doing so in a way that feels familiar and secure.

Triple-A focuses on reducing operational risk through clear fund segregation, structured settlement processes, and controlled account management CEO, Eric Barbier notes.

The platform provides instant payment confirmation, locked-in exchange rates, and integrations with existing checkout and payout systems. The goal isn’t to turn businesses into crypto operators, but to let them tap into a global digital asset user base without added complexity.

Whether a retailer wants to let customers check out with stablecoins, or a global platform needs to send payouts to freelancers and suppliers faster than traditional rails allow, Triple-A’s infrastructure handles the heavy lifting—compliance, settlement, currency conversion, and international routing—behind the scenes.

Triple-A doesn’t just enable crypto payments, but it also helps businesses expand into new markets, reduce costs, and future-proof their payment strategies.

“These benefits are driving adoption among internationally oriented businesses, such as e-commerce, digital services, marketplaces, travel, etc. that want fast, more cost-effective ways to accept and move funds globally.”

CoinGate

Crypto payments promise global reach. Merchants demand predictability. CoinGate sits between those two realities.

Rather than positioning crypto as a separate financial system, CoinGate integrates it directly into existing checkout flows. Merchants can accept digital assets alongside traditional payment methods, with real-time pricing and structured settlements that mirror familiar card processing models.

Volatility remains one of the largest barriers to adoption. CoinGate addresses that directly through optional conversion, allowing businesses to accept crypto while settling in fiat or stable assets.

Along with optional conversion, CoinGate provides a 20-minute exchange rate lock at checkout, which “ensures that the price a customer sees is exactly what they pay, and more importantly, exactly what the merchant receives,” says Adelė Jansonaitė, head of partnerships.

“By absorbing the ‘volatility gap’ ourselves, we remove the counterparty risk that usually exists during the time it takes for a blockchain transaction to confirm, allowing businesses to operate with the same price predictability they expect from traditional banking.”

This model reframes crypto payments from speculation to infrastructure. The blockchain handles settlement; CoinGate handles coordination. Exchange rates are locked at checkout. Transactions are monitored. Reporting aligns with standard accounting practices.

For e-commerce platforms and global sellers, the value proposition isn’t ideological. It’s operational. Cross-border payments can clear without traditional banking delays, while merchants avoid holding volatile assets on their balance sheets.

CoinGate’s role reflects a broader shift in digital finance. As the industry matures, adoption hinges less on decentralization narratives and more on usability. Jansonaitė says “Until it’s available, there is friction. Once it’s there, adoption follows naturally.” Payments succeed when they feel ordinary.

“There is no real downside to adding crypto as an alternative payment method, and in many cases, it translates into new customers and incremental sales from crypto-native audiences.”

CoinGate’s goal isn’t to reinvent commerce. It’s to make digital assets work within it.

Related: Are cold storage crypto cards the next step in adoption?

BVNK

BVNK is a stablecoin-native payments infrastructure platform built for businesses that need to move money globally with speed and reliability. Rather than focusing on merchant checkout alone, BVNK is designed as a broader financial layer that allows companies to send, receive, convert, and manage funds across both traditional banking rails and blockchain networks.

The platform centers on stablecoins as the bridge between crypto and conventional finance. Businesses can accept payments or hold balances in digital assets while retaining the ability to convert into fiat when needed. This flexibility allows companies to benefit from faster settlement and cross-border efficiency without taking on unwanted currency exposure or operational complexity.

“These companies, which are serving international users, process high transaction volumes, or operate in markets where traditional payment rails are slow, expensive, or unreliable, can use stablecoin payments to significantly reduce settlement times, costs and improve efficiency.”

BVNK handles much of the coordination behind the scenes, including liquidity routing, conversion logic, payment execution, and compliance workflows, so businesses can integrate digital asset payments without needing to manage wallets, blockchain infrastructure, or fragmented providers themselves. Funds can move through familiar interfaces and APIs while settlement occurs on faster, always-on digital rails.

For globally operating companies, the appeal is largely practical. International transfers, supplier payments, and platform payouts often face delays, high intermediary costs, or banking limitations. By combining fiat accounts with stablecoin settlement options in a single system, BVNK aims to reduce these frictions while maintaining enterprise-grade controls and transparency.

BVNK addresses risk through direct fiat or stablecoin settlement. BVNK Co-founder, Chris Harmes, highlights that they “work with regulated custody, banking, and liquidity partners, rather than relying on a single point of failure.”

“The goal is simple: businesses should be able to benefit from faster, global payments without needing to take on crypto-specific risk themselves. We design the platform so that crypto behaves like reliable payments infrastructure, not a speculative asset class.”

By distributing functions across multiple partners, BVNK reduces the risk that disruptions at any one institution could halt payments or restrict access to funds.

This story was originally published by TheStreet on Feb 20, 2026, where it first appeared in the Innovation section. Add TheStreet as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

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