On Wednesday (March 3), crypto exchange Bitfinex announced the launch of Bitfinex Pay, a new simple, fast, and low-cost way for businesses (that have a website) to accept payments in crypto.

According to a report by CityAM, the Bitfinex Pay widget “can be integrated on to a website facilitating online payments,” and it enables users of the website to pay with “Ethereum (ETH), Bitcoin (BTC), Lightning Network BTC (LN-BTC) and Tether tokens (USDt) via Ethereum or Tron,” with payments “directly deposited into a merchant’s exchange wallet on Bitfinex.”

Paolo Ardoino, CTO at Bitfinex, had this to say:

As a native of the cryptocurrency space, we’re aiming to take on established behemoths in the technology and payments fields, leveraging our knowledge of the tech to bring crypto payments into the mainstream…

When it comes to paying in crypto, there is a generational change in thinking, with the next generation of consumers attuned to the many new possibilities offered by digital payments.

Ardoino added:

“This is the age of digital money, and with Bitfinex Pay we’ve created an intuitive and seamless way for online merchants to receive payments in crypto. Bitfinex Pay enables merchants to be easily equipped to support crypto payments as increasing numbers of consumers become more comfortable with paying for goods and services using digital tokens.”

The CityAM report went on to say:

Customers of a merchant with the integrated payment technology simply click on the Bitfinex Pay button to be directed to the payment gateway. After payment is made using a cryptocurrency accepted by the merchant, the customer will be redirected back to the merchant’s website.

As for fees, the report said:

While there are no processing fees for using Bitfinex Pay, any transaction fees incurred on the relevant blockchain will be borne by online merchants and their customers. The value of payments made by each customer using Bitfinex Pay is capped at $1,000.

Here’s a diagram that shows how all this works from the customer’s point of view:

Source: Bitfinex

And here is what you need to do if you want to use Bitfinex Pay on your website:

  • “Sign in or sign up for a Bitfinex account”
  • “Complete the verification process at least to the Intermediate level
  • “Apply for Merchant verification”
  • “Set up a new sub-account and verify it”
  • “Create your API Key”
  • “Create an order with authenticated API endpoints”
  • “Include the order ID in the Bitfinex Pay button snippet and embed it on your check-out page”
  • “To get payment status, Bitfinex Pay will call your API endpoint webhook”
  • “Successful payments will be deposited in your merchant sub-account exchange wallet”

Bitfinex says that in future it plans to add support for more cryptocurrencies.