Crypto retail payments now have two levers that can be moved quickly: Merchant Rails, which reduces processing costs, and a consumer app that converts cryptocurrency purchases and spending.
Walmart’s OnePay sits at the intersection of the two, as its recent Zero Hash partnership allows the app to support Bitcoin and Ethereum transactions, hosted wallets, peer-to-peer transfers, and on-chain deposits and withdrawals (if the operator enables those features).
According to Zero Hash documentation, custody is handled by the Zero Hash company and execution is supported by an affiliated liquidity services department. Prices may include spreads in addition to platform fees.
Since the Walled Garden model centralizes balances in an omnibus wallet, the hinge is a decision made to enable external transfers. In contrast, an open model moves a portion of daily purchases to a public network where the activity is visible.
OnePay’s distribution channels are important given its scale.
Synchrony is launching a Walmart card within the OnePay app. This card provides a basic wallet where you can add cryptocurrency funds later and transfer them when the switch is on.
Walmart reports its extensive proximity to U.S. households, which reduces acquisition costs for its payment apps associated with retail payments, according to company data. Conversion calculation is simple. Multiply user qualifications by activation, purchase rate, and average ticket.
With 10 million active users eligible, half of whom use cryptocurrency, 1.0% make monthly purchases, and an average ticket of $150, the flow would mean approximately $1.7 million to $2.5 million worth of Bitcoin purchases per day, depending on asset share.
U.S. spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds regularly record daily net flows of hundreds of millions of dollars, so app-driven purchases of that scale are small compared to intense ETF sessions, but are consistent and come from retail behavior rather than model-driven allocators.
The payments side of the story is already happening elsewhere.
According to Shopify and Coinbase, merchants will be able to accept USDC on Base within Shopify Payments through a protocol for deferred capture, refunds, and receipts that mirrors card operations, narrowing the operational gap between cryptocurrencies and traditional systems.
Users can purchase up to $100,000 per week and send cryptocurrency to external wallets. In September, the company added peer-to-peer cryptocurrency functionality, a change that follows a broader product push along with fee incentives for PYUSD.
Cash App supports Lightning transfers and on-chain transfers within consumer limits. These product choices turn the cryptocurrency on-ramp into a two-way rail that can reach mempools and, in the case of stablecoins, provide predictable amounts to merchants.
Fees and latency are stable enough to configure scenarios. The average transaction fee on Ethereum is around 40 cents, while Layer 2 fees for simple transfers and swaps range between roughly 4 and 20 cents, per the L2fees dashboard.
Bitcoin’s Lightning Network processes payments within seconds with minimal fees under normal conditions, and on-chain confirmations last probabilistically for about 10 minutes with congestion fees.
These divisions establish a practical menu for sellers. Lightning for Bitcoin, Layer 2 or stablecoin Rail for the Ethereum ecosystem, stablecoins for par value similar to fiat currency.
Steak ‘n Shake serves as a real-time case study in culture and operations. According to a company statement at the time of Lightning’s launch on May 16, the chain Quarter-over-quarter, same-store sales were up about 10.7% in the second quarter, a nod to Bitcoiners.
Executives explained that the launch date will reduce processing costs by about 50% compared to cards. Share of global Bitcoin transactions, as reported in a company commentary.
The chain’s communication regarding Ethereum acceptance is not formalized, which takes into account the reaction that precedes the optics of asset selection and technical differences in the registry.
The technical problem for retailers is not whether Bitcoin or Ethereum can process checkout payments. It’s important to have a configuration that reduces refund issues, aligns back-office systems, and preserves unit economics.
A simple flow model presents how OnePay launches can interact with ETF-driven price formation and on-chain activity. This table converts user funnel input into daily Bitcoin purchase flows, not as a prediction, but as a benchmark against the ETF numbers traders see on a daily basis.
| Qualified Active (U) | Enable encryption | monthly buyer | average ticket | Estimated daily BTC purchase volume (USD m) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5,000,000 | 30% | 0.5% | $75 | 0.19 |
| 5,000,000 | 30% | 1.0% | $150 | 0.75 |
| 10,000,000 | 50% | 1.0% | $150 | 2.50 |
| 10,000,000 | 50% | 2.0% | $150 | 5.00 |
| 20,000,000 | 50% | 1.0% | $150 | 5.00 |
| 20,000,000 | 50% | 2.0% | $150 | 10.00 |
Whether that purchase is registered on the chain depends on the product range. zero hash data show On-chain deposits and withdrawals are possible on partner platforms. If OnePay launches without that feature, market makers will still need to acquire cryptocurrency to process customer orders, but balances will remain off-chain within omnibus management.
When on-chain transfers are enabled, self-storage and withdrawals to exchanges add address activity and mempool load to Bitcoin and route to a layer 2 or bridge path to Ethereum that connects retail purchases to visible network metrics.
Price disclosure influences repeat behavior.
According to Zero Hash, affiliated liquidity services can quote prices by applying a spread to the benchmark interest rate, and the platform can charge its own fees.
Retail cohorts respond to round-trip costs, so lower all-in spreads combined with checkout rewards tend to increase purchase incidence, while higher spreads tend to reduce ticket repeats.
KYC tiers and rolling limits are set per transaction limit, but in practice meaningful constraints on network liquidity are external transfers, supporting networks such as Lightning, specific Layer 2, and the presence of waiting periods associated with card or ACH funds.
The story of merchant readiness is now more about operations than raw throughput. According to Shopify, the framework addresses refund flow, partial capture, and receipt status, controls that card systems have had in place for decades.
In the case of Bitcoin, Lightning solves the confirmation time for payment events and merchants can later sweep them into cold storage or payment accounts. For Ethereum, Layer 2 and stablecoins reduce the fee and latency profile to a range acceptable to consumers, and stablecoins avoid the price conversion step for fiat-denominated businesses.
Retail optics will continue to impact assets on the counter.
Bitcoin provides community energy that translates into earned media and early adoption, reflected in the Steak ‘n Shake quarter. Ethereum provides builder base and selectivity through its layer 2 network, which can be cheaper or faster than the base layer.
Stablecoins offer a third path to making decisions with internet dollars rather than making asset-poor choices. The practical result for most large retailers will be a mix of optional support for Lightning, which has an active Bitcoin user base, stablecoins for e-commerce and kiosks, and Ethereum routed over Layer 2 to meet fee and latency targets.
Question in the title We are interested in product transition and back-office design rather than technology availability. Currently, payments can use Lightning, USDC on Base, or similar rails within Shopify Payments..
OnePay has a pathway to offer transactions, storage, and transfers via Zero Hash if you turn on that setting with the approval of the trust company. ETFs remain the benchmark against which retail app flows are compared when determining price impact.
The setting that determines whether retail demand will reach the public network is External Transfer at Launch.