
What Are Stablecoins? How They Work, How They're Regulated, and Why Businesses Use Them
Stablecoins are digital tokens backed 1:1 by reserves. Here's how they work, what the GENIUS Act requires, the real risks, and why businesses settle on them.
MoonPay helps people buy and sell crypto, while Coinflow helps businesses accept payments and pay sellers, players, and partners. Here's how to tell which one your business needs.
John Thomas Lang8 min read
Updated November 2026 · By John Thomas Lang, Head of Marketing
Choose MoonPay when your users want to buy, sell, or hold crypto, such as funding a self-custody wallet from inside your app. MoonPay charges the end user, with fees as low as 1% for bank transfers and 4.5% for Visa cards, and it verifies each user's identity itself. Choose Coinflow when your business needs to accept card, bank, and wallet payments and pay out to many parties. Customers check out with familiar methods and don't need a crypto wallet.
Most teams searching Coinflow vs. MoonPay run a crypto-adjacent business: a game with digital items, a collectibles marketplace, a wallet, or a fintech app. They're deciding how to take payments, and both names keep coming up.
Each company solves a different job. MoonPay gets crypto into and out of your users' hands. Coinflow gets your business paid, then pays everyone else on your platform.
Every MoonPay fact below comes from MoonPay's own pricing pages, help center, and business pages, checked in November 2026.
| If you need… | Pick |
|---|---|
| A "buy crypto" button so users can fund a wallet with a card or bank transfer | MoonPay |
| A way for users to cash out crypto to a bank account, card, or PayPal | MoonPay |
| Checkout for in-game items, packs, or subscriptions with cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, or bank transfer | Coinflow |
| Instant payouts to sellers, creators, or players in 40+ countries | Coinflow |
| A wallet funding flow and a standard checkout in the same product | Both, for different flows |
MoonPay sells crypto to consumers and buys it back, and it licenses that flow to businesses. Coinflow is payments infrastructure for businesses that accept payments and pay out to many parties.
MoonPay's core product lets people buy crypto with Visa, Mastercard, and Maestro cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, bank transfers, and local methods such as SEPA and Pix. Its buy flow covers users in 150+ countries, and its sell flow pays out cash in 80+.
For businesses, MoonPay offers Ramps, which embed that buy-and-sell flow in a partner's app as a hosted widget, headless API, or SDK. Its business lineup also includes Commerce, a crypto checkout, and enterprise products for stablecoin collection, conversion, and payouts.
In a ramp flow, MoonPay verifies the end user's identity and charges the end user its fees.
Coinflow gives businesses one connection to cards, bank rails, and local wallets, and routes each transaction for the best approval, cost, and speed. Customers pay with cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, ACH, SEPA, PIX, and more through one API.
Behind the checkout, settlement runs on a regulated, dollar-denominated layer that customers never see. That layer uses dollar-backed stablecoins, which is how money can move at T+5 seconds on card pay-ins and real-time payouts, 24/7/365. Your buyers don't need a crypto wallet, and every transaction reconciles in real time on one ledger.
| Company | Use case | Who pays | End-user experience |
|---|---|---|---|
| MoonPay | Users buy, sell, or move crypto | End user pays MoonPay's fees; partners can add an ecosystem fee | Photo ID, selfie, and proof of address before buying |
| Coinflow | Businesses accept payments and pay out | Business pays processing on custom pricing | Standard checkout with card, wallet, or bank |
MoonPay publishes consumer-facing fees that its users pay, while Coinflow prices each business based on volume and payment mix. Who pays matters as much as the rate, because MoonPay's fees show up in your user's total.
MoonPay lists transaction fees as low as 1% for bank transfers and 4.5% for Visa cards. Its US pricing disclosure sets the MoonPay fee at up to 4.5%, with a minimum fee of up to $3.99 on small purchases. A variable network fee is added, and a spread is built into the quoted price.
On the sell side, MoonPay pays out to bank accounts, to Visa and Mastercard through Push-to-Card, and to PayPal or Venmo from a MoonPay Account. According to its sell page, fees run 1%–4.5%, and bank payouts take a few minutes to two business days.
For chargebacks, MoonPay says its Ramps product handles "fraud checks, chargebacks, KYC, sanctions screening" on the crypto purchase, per its Ramps page. Sales of your own items, packs, or subscriptions still need a processor and a dispute process.
Coinflow routes each card transaction across multiple acquirers, and merchants typically see a 3–7% approvals lift versus legacy processors. Approved card-not-present transactions carry fraud and chargeback indemnification. Payouts go out on real-time payments (RTP), Push to Card, SEPA Instant, UK Faster Payments, and PIX, with per-transaction splits between sellers, suppliers, and the platform.
| Company | Pricing | Payout options | Chargeback handling |
|---|---|---|---|
| MoonPay | Up to 4.5% (1% bank, 4.5% Visa); minimum fee up to $3.99; plus network fee and spread | Bank, Push-to-Card, PayPal, Venmo (US) in 80+ countries | MoonPay handles disputes on ramp purchases |
| Coinflow | Custom, based on volume and payment mix | RTP, Push to Card, SEPA Instant, UK Faster Payments, PIX in 40+ countries | Indemnification on approved card-not-present transactions |
See how Courtyard.io grew active sellers 463% from Q2 to Q3 2024 after adding same-day and instant payout options.
Read the case study →MoonPay verifies every end user before they buy, and Coinflow builds Know Your Customer (KYC), Know Your Business (KYB), anti-money laundering (AML), and sanctions screening into the payments flow.
MoonPay's help center asks buyers for a government-issued photo ID and a selfie, plus proof of address, name, birthdate, nationality, and residence. First-time card buyers can face extra checks that take up to a few hours.
That verification happens even if you've already onboarded the user. MoonPay's partner FAQ says it must run its own KYC checks on partner customers. Funding speed depends on the method: card buys take minutes to hours, SEPA up to three business days, and ACH four to five.
| Company | Coverage | KYC | Setup |
|---|---|---|---|
| MoonPay | Buy in 150+ countries; sell in 80+ | MoonPay verifies every user: photo ID, selfie, proof of address | Hosted widget, headless API, or SDK; "go live in days" |
| Coinflow | Pay-ins in 160+ countries; payouts in 40+ | KYC, KYB, AML, and sanctions screening built in | API plus pre-built checkout and payout UIs; typically 2–3 weeks |
Coinflow takes pay-ins in 160+ countries and sends payouts in 40+. Pay-in and payout lists are separate, and that's where most cross-border payment providers differ, so check both against your markets.
MoonPay is the better choice when your users want to own crypto. That covers a few common jobs:
Ramp providers differ mostly on country coverage, payment methods, and user fees. Those three factors decide which of the MoonPay alternatives fits your user base.
Coinflow is the better choice when your business sells something, needs to get paid, and then pays others. These are the patterns we see most often:
Coinflow also underwrites businesses up front, including categories other processors turn away. Your volume and seasonality profile is underwritten well before launch, so peak windows don't trip freezes.
That matters most for online pack-ripping platforms, where a single drop can bring weeks of volume into one evening.
Yes. A wallet app might use MoonPay for its buy button and Coinflow to accept subscription payments and pay out to creators.
Keep the flows separate in your product. MoonPay's partner FAQ says its services cover only crypto-to-fiat and crypto-to-crypto transfers, and that it doesn't allow selling physical items for crypto. Sales of goods, packs, and services belong on a payments processor.
MoonPay also offers Commerce, a checkout for taking crypto and stablecoin payments, with a card option for non-crypto users. Its Commerce page markets reduced processing costs and "eliminating chargebacks," but doesn't detail how disputes work on card payments, so ask before you rely on it.
Get written answers to these questions from either provider:
Coinflow is built for the business side of the transaction. You get one connection to cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, ACH, SEPA, PIX, and more, routed across multiple acquirers for a 3–7% approvals lift versus legacy processors.
Merchants typically see 20–35% lower card acceptance costs, and FX is transparent with no opaque markup. If your users need crypto, a ramp provider handles that job. If your business needs to get paid and pay others, start with the payments infrastructure underneath.
Talk to our team about checkout, payouts, and chargeback coverage for your game, marketplace, or app.
Talk to our team →Coinflow is an alternative for businesses that need to accept payments and pay out, such as games, marketplaces, and fintech apps. If your users need to buy or sell crypto, MoonPay or another ramp provider fits that job better.
No. Customers pay with cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, ACH, SEPA, PIX, and other familiar methods. Coinflow uses crypto payment rails only as the settlement layer behind the checkout, and customers never see it.
MoonPay lists fees as low as 1% for bank transfers and 4.5% for Visa cards. Its US disclosure adds a minimum fee of up to $3.99, a variable network fee, and a spread built into the price.
MoonPay says it handles fraud checks, chargebacks, KYC, and sanctions screening for purchases made through its Ramps product. Payments for your own goods and services need their own processor and dispute coverage.
This content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, legal, or investment advice.

John Thomas Lang is Head of Marketing at Coinflow and a two-time $1B-unicorn brand builder known for turning early-stage companies into high-growth, category-defining businesses.

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