For Coinbase, payments are mission-critical to its goal of increasing economic freedom. Millions of customers rely on the platform to move money into crypto markets; if a payment fails, customers can’t transact, and they may leave for good.
As Coinbase expanded, it needed payments that could keep pace with the global crypto industry while maintaining the resilience, security, and regulatory standards its customers expect. Checkout.com has partnered with Coinbase since 2020, strengthening the payment infrastructure supporting trade in more than 100 markets and helping tighten Coinbase’s fraud protection strategy. As a result, Coinbase achieved a 13 percentage point increase in its payment acceptance rate.
Today, Checkout.com provides acquiring for around half of Coinbase’s business outside the US, while also supporting critical payments infrastructure in its US market.
“In partnerships, we’re always looking for partners that have the same values,” says Alaina Revoir, Head of Financial Services Partnerships at Coinbase. “It really feels like Checkout.com is an extension of our team.”
That close collaboration has allowed the partnership to evolve well beyond day-to-day payment processing. As Coinbase continues to expand its platform and introduce new capabilities, Checkout.com provides the payments expertise and infrastructure to support its next stage of growth.
Challenge: Infrastructure That Adapts to the Speed of Innovation
The crypto market never stands still. Customer demand can change rapidly, market activity can surge without warning, and payments must flow around the clock.
For Coinbase, resilience is central to the customer experience, and uninterrupted access to payment rails is essential. If customers are unable to deposit funds, they will become frustrated and likely switch to a competitor.
“We cannot lose payment rails in our industry,” explains Alaina. “The expectation from our users is that we are always operational when it comes to payment rails, and so having multiple providers is extremely important.”
At the same time, Coinbase was expanding globally while carefully managing fraud and adapting to regulatory requirements. As well as improved payment performance, Coinbase needed a partner that could provide strategic guidance and support its long-term growth internationally.
Solution: Elegant Engineering and a Person-Focused Partnership
“When our collaboration began, we were initially focused on card payouts,” says Yu Ai Seet, Director, Crypto Account Management at Checkout.com. “Then, as trust grew between us, we evolved into a highly specialized technical partnership, and our scope expanded to include global payins, fraud strategy, and regulatory support.”
To strengthen payment resilience, Checkout.com’s engineering teams built a custom intelligent orchestration layer that enables Coinbase to route transactions across multiple payment providers. This gives Coinbase the redundancy it needs to keep payments available, even when individual PSPs experience disruption.
“With Checkout.com as our partner, we were really able to bring that next level of payment services to our users, building out our infrastructure to allow for the redundancy we need to operate in over 100 markets,” says Alaina.
Alongside this resilient infrastructure, Coinbase uses Checkout.com’s Acquiring, together with Intelligent Acceptance and Authentication, to maximize issuer approvals while maintaining a secure customer experience. Fraud Detection Pro helps Coinbase take on more transactions while protecting its customers from misuse of their payment details.
Checkout.com’s global footprint underpins all of this. As a licensed PSP supporting over 150 processing currencies, with direct acquiring licenses across major hubs and offices in 19 locations, Checkout.com helps Coinbase meet local regulatory requirements and payment preferences as it expands into new markets.
Results: Secure, Scalable Strategy for Growth
Backed by crypto-specialized account management, including regular in-person meetings, dedicated technical support, and strategic consultation, the partnership has delivered measurable improvements across payment performance, fraud prevention, and operational resilience.
Using Checkout.com’s Intelligent Acceptance, together with smart routing and other techniques, Coinbase increased its acceptance rate by 13 percentage points, helping more customers successfully trade and manage their funds on the platform.
Coinbase also expanded its payout capabilities by launching Mastercard payouts alongside its existing Visa offering, broadening payout coverage for customers while unlocking Mastercard incentives.
To support continued growth while protecting customers, Coinbase uses Fraud Detection Pro to reduce fraud on its on-ramp payments. As transaction volumes increased, fraud rates were cut in half, demonstrating that higher acceptance rates don’t have to mean more fraud.
Together, Coinbase and Checkout.com are bringing stablecoin acceptance to more customers, enabling eligible enterprise merchants to accept stablecoin payments and meet the growing demand for digital money.
As Coinbase continues to expand globally, Checkout.com provides the high-performance payments partnership it needs to thrive in the digital economy.
Disclaimer: This article is intended solely for informational purposes and should not be considered trading or investment advice. Nothing herein should be construed as financial, legal, or tax advice. Trading or investing in cryptocurrencies carries a considerable risk of financial loss. Always conduct due diligence.
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