Settling Bitcoin to dollars: every detail of the wire
How the conversion happens, where the fees are, and what shows up on your bank statement.
Customers love asking "wait, how do you actually get dollars?" Here's what happens from the moment your customer pays in Bitcoin to the moment USD lands in your bank — every step, every fee, every line on your statement.
Step 1: customer pays
Customer scans your QR or hits "pay with Bitcoin" at checkout. Their wallet opens, shows the amount in both BTC and USD, and they confirm. The processor (BitPay, OpenNode, Strike, etc.) sees the inbound transaction.
- Lightning: confirmed in <3 seconds.
- On-chain: marked "paid" when in mempool; "settled" after 1–6 confirmations.
Step 2: instant conversion
The moment the payment is "paid," the processor locks the USD price and converts. You're no longer holding BTC exposure even if the price moves overnight.
This is the magic. Your bookkeeper sees revenue in dollars. The customer paid in Bitcoin. Neither has to think about the other.
Step 3: the daily payout
Most processors batch all your sales for the day and wire one ACH or wire transfer the next business morning.
- ACH: free, arrives next morning.
- Wire: $5–25, arrives same day before 5pm ET.
- Threshold: typically $50 minimum payout; smaller days roll forward.
Step 4: what shows up on your bank statement
You'll see a single deposit with a memo like:
BITPAY SETTLEMENT 2026-XX-XX 1247.83
That's your day's Bitcoin sales, minus the processor fee, in USD. Your bookkeeper books it as revenue.
Where the fees are
Three places. Total typically 0.5–1% all-in for most small businesses.
- Processor fee: 0.5–1% per transaction. Comparable to credit card processing, often cheaper.
- Network fee: $0.01 (Lightning) to $1–25 (on-chain). The processor either eats this or passes it to the customer.
- FX spread: small markup on the BTC→USD conversion. Built into the quoted rate.
What this means for your books
If you settle to USD daily, Bitcoin is not on your balance sheet. Ever. You don't own BTC. You owned it for a few milliseconds before the processor converted it.
This is the answer to "what about volatility?" and "what about taxes?" — there's nothing to be volatile about, and the tax treatment is identical to a cash sale.
Setting daily USD settlement removes 95% of the operational friction. It's the default for a reason.