Payment solution
IBEX: crypto payment solution
The verdict
IBEX is Lightning and settlement infrastructure delivered through a single API for banks, fintechs, and platforms. A typical merchant cannot use it directly; a developer must build on it.
- Who holds the funds
- Provider-custodied
- Who holds the keys
- Provider
- Self-hosting
- Not required (hosted)
- Lightning
- Yes
- Fiat settlement
- Yes
- Bank settlement
- Conditional
Best for: Fintechs, exchanges, and platforms with engineers building their own payment product on managed Lightning rails.
Poor fit: Any typical merchant who wants to accept crypto without building software.
Biggest tradeoff: IBEX offers deep, well-documented Lightning, on-chain, and fiat-ramp infrastructure on managed nodes. But it is consumed only through an API, production access needs a contract, and there is no turnkey merchant product, so a merchant needs engineering to use it at all.
What it is
IBEX is API-first Lightning, on-chain, and fiat on/off-ramp settlement infrastructure. It runs and manages the node infrastructure and liquidity, and exposes accounts, invoices, and settlement through a REST API (IBEX Hub) aimed at banks, fintechs, exchanges, and payment platforms.
What it is not
It is not a turnkey merchant product. There is no documented point-of-sale app, hosted checkout, merchant invoicing UI, or ecommerce plugin. The only way to use it is to build an application against the API, and production access requires a business contract, not a self-serve signup.
How the payment flow works
A developer integrates the IBEX Hub API to create accounts, generate Lightning invoices or on-chain addresses, and, where supported, settle to fiat through regional rails. IBEX manages the nodes and liquidity behind the API; the customer-facing experience is whatever the integrator builds.
Custody, keys, and settlement
The most important thing about any crypto payment solution is who controls the money and what happens if the provider goes away. Here is the structured answer, from primary sources.
- Custody
- Provider-custodied
- Key control
- Provider
- Fiat settlement
- Yes
- Bank settlement
- Conditional
- Settlement timing
- Not confirmed
- Settles in
- Configurable
- Backup and recovery
- Not confirmed
Conversion: IBEX documents a multi-rail on/off ramp (SEPA, SPEI, ACH, Transfer365) across LatAm, EU, UK, and parts of Africa. The US is not listed as a supported ramp region. Fees are described only as tiered by volume, with no figures published.
Getting your money: IBEX manages the nodes and holds account balances, so access to funds depends on IBEX. No independent-recovery mechanism is documented.
If the provider or hosted service becomes unavailable
Withdrawing funds depends on provider access.
IBEX runs the nodes and holds account balances, so access to funds depends on IBEX. No independent-recovery mechanism is documented, and explicit custody terms were not found, so treat provider dependence as high.
What you have to operate
Your own application and integration against the IBEX API. IBEX manages the node infrastructure and liquidity, but the merchant-facing product does not exist until someone builds it.
Ongoing maintenance: Whatever the built integration requires; IBEX manages the node infrastructure.
Support: Email and a sales/consultation calendar; no documented merchant support tier.
Who this is right for
A fintech, exchange, neobank, or platform with an engineering team that wants managed Lightning and settlement rails to build its own payment product on. For that audience the API is deep and well documented.
Who should skip it
Any typical merchant who wants to accept crypto without building software. Without a developer and a contract, there is no way to use IBEX, and US merchants face the added gap that the US is not a listed ramp region.
Our evaluation
Pricing
- Setup
- Not confirmed (contract-gated; no figures published)
- Subscription
- Not confirmed
- Transaction fee
- Not confirmed (only described as tiered by monthly volume)
- Conversion fee
- Not confirmed
- Settlement fee
- Not confirmed
IBEX publishes no pricing (the pricing page returns 404); it states only a tiered-by-volume model. Any figures require a sales conversation. Treat all fees as unconfirmed. Last verified 2026-07-11.
Limitations
- No turnkey merchant product: POS, checkout, invoicing UI, and plugins are all absent.
- Production access is contract-gated, not self-serve.
- The US is not among the listed fiat ramp regions.
- Pricing is undisclosed (the pricing page returns 404); only tiered-by-volume is stated.
- Custody terms, KYB, refunds, and reporting are not documented.
CryptoLic Lab
CryptoLic does not stop at reading documentation. We independently validate what vendors claim by setting things up and running them ourselves, then we publish what we actually observed. For this solution, that hands-on validation is not scheduled. Nothing below is marked verified until we have tested it, so you can trust a "verified" label when you eventually see one.
| What we will verify | Status |
|---|---|
| Sandbox account and API auth | Pending verification |
| Lightning invoice end to end | Pending verification |
| On-chain receive and custody model | Pending verification |
| Fiat ramp behavior and regions | Pending verification |
| Custody terms and US eligibility (in writing) | Pending verification |
Whichever solution you choose, the crypto has to reconcile against your books. The The Merchant Accounting & Bookkeeping Toolkit gives you a routine and a clean year-end package for your CPA.
Sources and verification
Last content review 2026-07-11 Documentation verified
- Custody
- 2026-07-11
- Settlement
- 2026-07-11
- Pricing
- 2026-07-11
- Availability
- 2026-07-11
- Kyc
- 2026-07-11
- Supported assets
- 2026-07-11
- Integrations
- 2026-07-11
- Refunds
- 2026-07-11
- Open source
- 2026-07-11
- Content reviewed
- 2026-07-11
- Editorial update
- 2026-07-11
- IBEX home Supports: IBEX positions as settlement infrastructure
- About IBEX Supports: Founded 2018; Lightning-as-a-service positioning
- IBEX On & Off Ramp Supports: On/off ramp rails and regions (SEPA/SPEI/ACH/Transfer365; US not listed)
- IBEX docs index Supports: Comprehensive REST API reference
- IBEX Hub welcome Supports: IBEX Hub is an API service; IBEX manages nodes and liquidity
- IBEX Hub Console Supports: Hub Console is a developer web frontend
- Sandbox vs Production Supports: Production access requires a business contract
- Get all accounts Supports: Accounts hold balances via API
- Transaction types Supports: Lightning and on-chain transaction types
- Create crypto receive info Supports: On-chain receive info
- IBEXMercado GitHub Supports: Only stale legacy repos public
Change log
- 2026-07-11 Initial publication as a developer-infrastructure entry (not merchant-ready). Documentation review complete; no lab scheduled because there is no merchant product to test.
Spotted something out of date? Send a correction. We verify every submission against primary sources; vendor contact never changes a rating.
Questions
Can a merchant use IBEX to accept crypto today?
Not directly. IBEX is infrastructure consumed through an API, and production access requires a business contract. A merchant would need a developer to build an application on top of it. That is why we classify it as not merchant-ready: it is for the companies that build merchant products, not for the merchant.
Does IBEX settle to a US bank?
Not per the documentation. Its on/off ramp lists LatAm, EU, UK, and parts of Africa, and the US is not among the supported ramp regions. Fiat settlement for a US business is not established.
Who holds the funds with IBEX?
IBEX does, by architecture: it runs the nodes and holds account balances. Explicit custody terms were not documented, so we mark the specifics unconfirmed while noting the model is custodial and provider-dependent.
How this compares
Every solution we cover is evaluated the same way. Here is where the others land.
| Solution | Category | Readiness | The short version |
|---|---|---|---|
| BTCPay Server | Self-hosted acceptance platform | R3 Workable with effort | BTCPay Server is the reference self-custody answer: free, open-source software that takes Bitcoin and Lightning straight to your own wallet, in exchange for running and maintaining a server. |
| OpenNode | Custodial gateway | R4 Merchant-ready | OpenNode is a finished, hosted Bitcoin and Lightning gateway that can auto-convert to dollars and settle to a US bank, in exchange for the provider holding your funds and gating bank payout behind approval. |
Compare it against the others in the Payment Solutions Decision Center, or start from what you actually need.
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