NOWPayments Review

In April of this year, cryptocurrency swap platform operator ChangeNow launched NOWPayments – an API solution that enables merchants to accept cryptocurrency payments.

The service has already gained some recognition among merchants, especially when more e-commerce platforms and consumers are aware of stablecoins, which significantly reduce the potential harm caused by wild price volatility. In the following lines, we’ll briefly look into NOWPayments and see if it can become a major player in the payments industry.

What is NOWPayments?

NOWPayments can be regarded as a cryptocurrency payment gateway. It allows merchants to process crypto payments in a convenient way.

The Bitcoin market has more or less matured and stabilized compared to 2017 and the start of 2018. While the high volatility is still prevalent when analyzing the medium-term timeframes, the largest cryptocurrency by market cap is moving smoother than ever, with its price action being often seen to form sideways trends. This means that more merchants are open to enter the crypto bandwagon and accept Bitcoin as a payment method. With NOWPayment, they can install the API and enable clients to buy goods and services with the digital coin.

If Bitcoin and most of the altcoins still look unstable in the context of payment operations, stablecoins represent a much better solution. The latter are blockchain-based tokens pegged to fiat currencies, such as the US dollar or the euro. NOWPayments provides an extensive list of cryptocurrency options, which comprises Bitcoin, altcoins, and stablecoins. Thus, integrating ChangeNOW’s payment solution poses no risk, as merchants can instantly convert any crypto funds into stablecoins like PAX.

Merchants who integrate NOWPayments can achieve the following:

• An alternative payment method that is trusted worldwide and works 24/7;
• The ability to receive cross-border payments that can be monitored in real-time;
• The capability to build an international or global client base;
• Enhanced security and fewer fees related to credit/debit card chargebacks.

What Are Some Features of NOWPayments?

NOWPayments boasts several features that set it apart from other crypto payment gateways.

First and foremost, the service provides a simple application programming interface (API) that can be smoothly integrated into the companies’ systems.

Thanks to the Auto Coin Conversion feature, merchants and businesses can avoid the negative impact of rate fluctuations. All the crypto payments are automatically converted to BTC, ETH, or PAX.

The withdrawal process is carried out within seconds, with the payments being instantly transferred to the merchant’s digital wallet. Note that NOWPayments has no access to the digital wallets used by its clients.

Main Benefits of NOWPayments

While NOWPayments has been around for less than two full months, it has already managed to expand its presence worldwide, especially thanks to the benefits and perks that merchants enjoy after integrating it. We could distinguish the following benefits:

• The API is easy to set up, and the dashboard is intuitive, comprising relevant stats and flexible settings.
• NOWPayments is a zero-free service. Merchants should expect network fees and exchange fees only. The exchange fee for BTC-BTC transactions is already 0%. More importantly, all the fees are already priced in the figure that the client sees on the screen.
• The service enables the payment in multiple coins, such as BTC, ETH, PAX, EOS, XRP, BNB, TRX, ZEN, XVG, BCH, and others. In fact, NOWPayments adds two to five cryptocurrencies every week.
• The NOWPayments team makes sure to comply with the regulations of every jurisdiction around the world. 
• As a non-custodial service, all the crypto payments carried out through NOWPayment are processed instantly, and the funds go directly to the merchant’s digital wallet.

Interestingly, NOWPayments allows businesses to accumulate and store capital in BTC and profit from the potential return when it rallies. Also, the service enables merchants to enjoy the freedom to “Be Your Own Bank (BYOB).”

Final Verdict

Although NOWPayment is still at its nascent stage, we see it as a genuine competitor to CoinPayments and other similar services, especially when weighing its zero-fee advantage. For those who need a fast and reliable way of processing crypto payments, NOWPayments might be the right choice. It’s cheap, transparent, and convenient. 

ChangeNOW has big expectations from its payment infrastructure. In the following months, the crypto payment services will add more coins and will enable fiat transactions.