Shopify merchants used to have one route to crypto: install an app. That changed when Shopify Payments added native support for USDC on the Base network. A toggle inside the platform is a materially different proposition from a third-party app, and merchants are right to ask whether an app is still necessary.

The answer depends on one question: what do your customers actually hold? Native Shopify crypto payments cover a single stablecoin on a single network. That is genuinely sufficient for some stores and clearly insufficient for others. This guide sets out what each option covers, using Shopify's own published scope rather than an inference about it.

Shopify's own announcement and changelog define the scope, and the scope is narrow by design.

Shopify Payments merchants can accept

USDC on the Base network

. Customers pay from a wide range of supported crypto wallets. By default the merchant receives a payout in their local currency, and merchants who prefer to hold the asset may claim USDC directly by connecting a wallet that supports Base. The feature launched in early access and is available in eligible markets.

Three limits follow from that description, and none of them is a criticism. They are simply the boundary of a v1 feature.

Some stores should turn on the toggle, ignore the apps, and get on with their day. Three profiles fit.

If you sell primarily into one market, you are on Shopify Payments, and that market is eligible, the native option adds a payment method with no integration work and no additional vendor. There is no reason to add an app for a capability you already have.

If the customers asking to pay in crypto are asking specifically for USDC, and they are comfortable on Base, native coverage matches the demand. Our breakdown of

which cryptocurrencies customers are actually paying with

is worth reading before assuming this, because merchant expectations and actual customer behaviour often differ here.

A toggle is the cheapest possible experiment. If you do not know whether your customers want to pay in stablecoins or crypto, turning on the native option for a quarter produces real data at close to zero cost. Merchants who see meaningful volume then have a concrete reason to widen coverage.

The native option stops being sufficient at four recognisable points.

A customer holding BTC, ETH, SOL, or USDT cannot pay natively. USDT in particular is widely held across Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe, and a store selling into those markets that supports only USDC is declining payments it could have taken. The EukaPay plugin supports most major cryptocurrencies like BTC, ETH, LTC, SOL, USDC, USDT.

This is the limit merchants underestimate. A customer with USDC on Ethereum or Solana holds the correct asset on the wrong network, and the native checkout cannot accept it. Asking a customer to bridge assets mid-purchase is a lost sale. Our guide to

accepting USDC payments

covers the multi-network picture.

Shopify Payments availability varies by country, and stores using another payment provider do not get the native crypto toggle at all. A plugin is not an upgrade in that situation; it is the only route.

Native payouts arrive in the merchant's local currency. Merchants who want to choose their settlement currency, or who operate across several, get settlement in USD, EUR, GBP, CAD to their bank account through EukaPay.

Here's the picking heuristic in one table.

Running both is a legitimate choice rather than a hedge. The native toggle handles USDC-on-Base customers inside Shopify Payments, and the plugin catches everyone else. The trade-off is two settlement paths and two sets of reporting, which is worth accepting once the recovered volume is larger than the reconciliation effort. For a store below that threshold, pick one. Our comparison of the

best crypto payment apps for Shopify

covers the plugin options in detail, and our

Shopify crypto setup guide

walks through installation.

Whichever EukaPay product a Shopify merchant chooses, the same infrastructure sits underneath it: instant crypto-to-fiat conversion at a locked exchange rate to remove all crypto volatility, protection against chargebacks, support for a wide range of cryptocurrencies, and settlement in USD, EUR, GBP, CAD to your bank account. A merchant who later adds an invoicing flow, a payment link, or a payout run uses the same account and the same settlement configuration.

The choice amongst these options is a question of what your customers hold and where you sell, not a question of which option is stronger. A US-only store with USDC-holding customers is well served natively. A store shipping to twenty countries needs coverage that matches what those customers hold.

Create a merchant account at the

EukaPay dashboard

to begin onboarding, then install the Shopify plugin from your store admin. Every merchant goes through a business review, and a sandbox environment is available for development while the review is underway, so you can test the checkout flow before it goes live. Developers (or coding agents) building a headless store can review the endpoints in the

EukaPay API documentation

.

Can I run the Shopify native option and the EukaPay plugin at the same time?

Yes. The native toggle covers USDC on Base for Shopify Payments merchants, and the EukaPay plugin covers the assets and networks it does not. You will reconcile two settlement paths.

Which cryptocurrencies does the EukaPay plugin support?

EukaPay supports most major cryptocurrencies like BTC, ETH, LTC, SOL, USDC, USDT, across multiple networks.

What currency does EukaPay settle in?

Settlement is in USD, EUR, GBP, CAD to your bank account, and you select the settlement currency when you configure the account.

Do I need Shopify Payments to use the EukaPay plugin?

No. The EukaPay plugin works independently of Shopify Payments, which makes it the available route for merchants in markets or on plans where Shopify Payments crypto support does not apply.

Does my store hold cryptocurrency with EukaPay?

No. EukaPay converts each payment to fiat at a locked exchange rate at the point of payment, so the store receives a fiat deposit and needs no wallet.

Are crypto payments reversible?

Crypto pay-ins are not reversible by the payer, which removes the friendly-fraud chargeback exposure that card payments carry.

Can I use EukaPay on a headless Shopify build?

Yes. Merchants running a custom or headless storefront integrate through the EukaPay API rather than the plugin.