Payment solution

Strike: crypto payment solution

The verdict

Lightning infrastructure or provider Early or narrow Business-process integration Not recommended yet

Strike is a powerful custodial Lightning and fiat rail, but for merchants it is mostly an API plus a consumer app, and bank payout is gated behind partner onboarding, so it is not yet a turnkey way to accept payments.

Who holds the funds
Provider-custodied
Who holds the keys
Provider
Self-hosting
Not required (hosted)
Lightning
Yes
Fiat settlement
Yes
Bank settlement
Gated by approval

Best for: Developers or technically capable merchants building a custom Lightning acceptance flow who can pursue partner onboarding.

Poor fit: A typical small merchant who wants to sign up and start accepting payments with settlement to their bank today.

Biggest tradeoff: Strike offers excellent Lightning infrastructure and fiat conversion with almost nothing to host. But merchant acceptance runs through the API or third-party apps, and bank payout is partner-gated, so the commitment to reach a working acceptance flow is high even though the underlying rail is strong.

Confidence: Low Last reviewed 2026-07-11

What it is

Strike is a custodial payments company built on Lightning, offering fast Bitcoin and Lightning transfers, currency conversion (including USD and USDT), and a consumer app. For businesses, its capabilities are exposed mainly through a well-documented REST API and OAuth, plus third-party apps built on top of it.

What it is not

It is not, based on the documentation we could retrieve, a finished self-serve merchant acceptance product you sign up for and switch on. In-person and ecommerce acceptance run through the API or third-party apps rather than a first-party plugin, and bank payout is limited to select business accounts through partner onboarding. It is not self-custody, and it is not open-source.

How the payment flow works

A business integrates the Strike API (or uses a third-party app) to create invoices or receive requests. Customers pay over Lightning or on-chain, funds land in a custodial Strike balance in a chosen currency, and, for approved business accounts, USD payouts go to a bank via ACH or wire over one to five business days.

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
Gated by approval
Settlement timing
Multiple days
Settles in
Configurable
Backup and recovery
Provider

Conversion: Strike holds custodial balances and can convert between currencies (BTC, USD, USDT, and others) with a quoted rate lock. Conversion is documented in the API; the business fee schedule and spread were not retrievable from primary sources.

Getting your money: Payouts to a bank use ACH or domestic wire in USD and take one to five business days, but the documentation states payouts are limited to select business accounts and directs merchants to contact Strike partnerships.

If the provider or hosted service becomes unavailable

Withdrawing funds depends on provider access.

Strike is custodial, so access to your balance depends on Strike being available. If the service went down or an account was restricted, acceptance would stop and reaching funds would depend on provider access. Its own documentation notes a maintenance mode that halts activity. This is the standard custodial exposure.

What you have to operate

Whatever acceptance flow you build or adopt: your own API integration, or a third-party app that uses Strike. Strike hosts the rail, so there is no server or node, but the acceptance experience is your responsibility to assemble.

Ongoing maintenance: Depends on the integration you build or the third-party app you use.

Support: Partnerships email and app/email support documented; no SLA found. Marketing and help pages were not retrievable.

Who this is right for

A developer or a technically capable merchant building a custom Lightning acceptance flow, who can integrate an API and pursue partner onboarding for payouts. The underlying rail is strong and the API is good, so it is a solid foundation to build on.

Who should skip it

A typical small merchant who wants to sign up and start accepting payments with money settled to their bank today. Without a first-party acceptance product and with payout gated behind partner onboarding, the path to a working merchant setup is an integration project, not a signup.

Our evaluation

Money and control

Who holds your money and keys, whether you get dollars, and what happens if the provider goes away.

What we evaluate Rating Why Confidence
Custody model Who holds your money between the sale and settlement, you or a third party. Fair Fully custodial: Strike holds your balances; standard custodial exposure, disclosed in the API docs. Medium
Settlement Whether you get dollars, crypto, or a choice, and when. Fair USD payouts via ACH or wire take one to five business days and are limited to select, partner-approved business accounts. Medium
Fiat support Whether you can price and settle in dollars cleanly. Good Strong fiat conversion and USD balances are documented, though the business fee schedule was not retrievable. Medium
Refunds Whether you can refund a payment, and how. Never inferred from an API. Not confirmed No refund endpoint or workflow was found in the accessible documentation. Low
Security model What you are trusting and what your exposure is: keys, custody, attack surface. Good OAuth2/OIDC scoped keys and webhook signature verification; recovery specifics unconfirmed. Medium

Operations

What running this actually takes day to day, and whether it produces records your books can use.

What we evaluate Rating Why Confidence
Hosting requirements Whether you have to run a server or a node. The biggest burden divider. Excellent Nothing to host; the rail is fully managed by Strike. High
Ease of setup Honest effort to go live, not marketing easy. Fair Account signup is easy, but turning it into merchant acceptance needs integration and partner approval. Low
Accounting and records Whether it produces records your books and CPA can use. Not confirmed Only programmatic list endpoints were confirmed; no export or reconciliation feature was verified. Low
Employee workflow What your staff actually have to do, and whether multiple users are supported. Not confirmed No multi-user, roles, or permissions were documented in accessible pages. Low
Merchant support Who helps when it breaks, and how good that help is. Not confirmed Only a partnerships email and app support were documented; no SLA and no retrievable help center. Low
Offline capability Whether it works when the internet or a node is down. Poor Cloud and custodial dependency means outages stop acceptance; no offline path. Medium

Technical capability

What the solution can actually do: Lightning, on-chain, stablecoins, and how extensible it is.

What we evaluate Rating Why Confidence
Lightning support Whether you can take Lightning, and what that requires operationally. Good Lightning is core and well-documented via the API, with nothing for the merchant to host. Medium
On-chain support Whether you can take on-chain, with what confirmation and fee reality. Good On-chain receive with speed and fee tiers is documented in the API. Medium
Open source Whether you can inspect and self-host it, and whether it is actively maintained. Not applicable Strike is proprietary and managed; only third-party example apps are external. High
Operational maturity Whether this is a stable product or an early project. Good An established company with a sandbox, webhooks, and staged fiat rollouts from 2023 to 2025. Medium
Developer ecosystem Whether you can extend it if you need to. Mostly for infrastructure and API-first tools. Good A full REST API, OAuth Connect, sandbox, webhooks, and example apps. Medium

Cost, clarity, and privacy

What it really costs all in, how clearly that is disclosed, and what using it reveals.

What we evaluate Rating Why Confidence
Fees What it really costs, all in, and how transparent that cost is. Not confirmed The business fee schedule, spread, and payout fees were not published in accessible documentation. Low
Documentation quality Whether a merchant can actually learn to run this. Good API docs are thorough and accessible, but marketing, help, and pricing pages were 403-blocked. Medium
Privacy What using this reveals, and to whom: address reuse, KYC, on-chain linkage. Not confirmed KYC/KYB is required, but no privacy-tier or data-handling detail was retrievable. Low

We rate each area on its own. There is no overall score, because averaging areas this different, a self-hosted server's independence against a gateway's convenience, would hide the tradeoff you need to see. How we rate.

Pricing

Setup
Not confirmed (business fee schedule not retrievable)
Subscription
Not confirmed
Transaction fee
Not confirmed (consumer figures are not merchant figures; business schedule 403-blocked)
Conversion fee
Documented as a quoted service fee (exact spread not published in accessible docs)
Settlement fee
Not confirmed (payout fees not published)

Strike's business fee schedule, conversion spread, and payout fees were not retrievable from primary sources (marketing and pricing pages returned 403). Do not rely on consumer-app fee figures as merchant pricing. Confirm directly with Strike. Last verified 2026-07-11.

Limitations

  • For merchants, acceptance is API-first or via third-party apps; no first-party acceptance product was documented.
  • Bank payout is limited to select business accounts through partner onboarding, not self-serve.
  • No refund endpoint or workflow was found in accessible documentation.
  • Custodial and proprietary; you never hold keys and cannot inspect or self-host it.
  • Business fee schedule, spread, and payout fees were not retrievable (marketing and pricing pages 403-blocked).
  • Marketing, help, and pricing pages could not be fetched, so several merchant-facing facts remain unverified.

What we are still verifying

We publish what our documentation review supports and mark the rest as unverified. These questions are open. We will answer them with hands-on testing before we treat them as fact.

Open questionCurrent confidence
Can a typical small business actually get bank payout, or is it reserved for partners? Low
What is the business fee schedule and conversion spread? Low
Does Strike offer any refund tooling for merchants? Low
Is there a first-party merchant acceptance product, or only the API and third-party apps? Low
Are there multi-user roles and permissions for a business account? Low

Can a typical small business actually get bank payout, or is it reserved for partners?

Why it matters: Payout availability is the difference between Strike being a usable merchant solution and being infrastructure; the docs limit it to select accounts.

Planned lab validation: Apply as a small business for payout access and document whether it is granted and on what terms.

What is the business fee schedule and conversion spread?

Why it matters: The fee mechanism is documented but the actual percentages, spread, and payout fees were not retrievable.

Planned lab validation: Obtain the business fee schedule from an account or verified page and record real costs.

Does Strike offer any refund tooling for merchants?

Why it matters: No refund endpoint or workflow was found, and refunds are a core merchant need.

Planned lab validation: Confirm whether any refund path exists for a business account.

Is there a first-party merchant acceptance product, or only the API and third-party apps?

Why it matters: Determines whether a non-developer merchant can use Strike at all.

Planned lab validation: Verify whether Strike offers a first-party checkout or POS product for businesses.

Are there multi-user roles and permissions for a business account?

Why it matters: Any business with staff needs this; it was not documented in accessible pages.

Planned lab validation: Inspect a business dashboard for team roles and permissions.

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 in progress. 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 verifyStatus
Business payout access for a small merchant Pending verification
Business fee schedule and conversion spread Pending verification
Lightning acceptance via API Pending verification
On-chain acceptance via API Pending verification
Refund tooling (if any) Pending verification
First-party acceptance product (if any) Pending verification
Multi-user roles and permissions Pending verification
Current country availability Pending verification
Keeping the books straight?

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

How we verify and date facts.

Change log

  1. 2026-07-11 Initial publication. Documentation review complete; hands-on lab validation in progress. Several merchant-facing pages were not retrievable and are marked unconfirmed.

Spotted something out of date? Send a correction. We verify every submission against primary sources; vendor contact never changes a rating.

Questions

Can I just sign up for Strike and start accepting payments as a business?

Not as a turnkey product, based on what we could verify. Strike's merchant capabilities are exposed mainly through its API and third-party apps, and bank payout is limited to select business accounts via partner onboarding. Reaching a working acceptance-and-settlement flow is an integration and approval process, not a simple signup, which is why we rate it Early or narrow and do not yet recommend it for a typical merchant.

Does Strike settle dollars to my bank?

For approved business accounts, yes: USD payouts go to a bank via ACH or domestic wire over one to five business days. But the documentation limits payouts to select business accounts and directs merchants to Strike partnerships, so bank settlement is not guaranteed on signup.

Who holds my funds with Strike?

Strike does. It is custodial: your balances are held by Strike in the currency you choose, and you never control the keys. That is convenient for conversion and payout, and it means your access depends on the provider.

Can I issue refunds with Strike?

We could not confirm it. No refund endpoint or workflow appeared in the documentation we retrieved. Because crypto payments are irreversible, refunds are always a deliberate action, and we will not claim Strike supports them until we verify it. Treat refunds as unconfirmed.

Why is your confidence low on Strike?

Strike's API documentation is thorough, but its marketing, help, and pricing pages returned access errors to our tools, so business fees, the current country list, and several merchant-facing details could not be verified from primary sources. We publish what the API docs support and mark the rest unconfirmed rather than guess.

How this compares

Every solution we cover is evaluated the same way. Here is where the others land.

SolutionCategoryReadinessThe short version
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.
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.

Using this beside your POS

This solution runs beside your point-of-sale system, not inside it. See how crypto acceptance works with the registers we have reviewed:

What "beside the register" (parallel acceptance) means.

Related reading

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