Everything merchants and subscribers ask us before connecting a wallet.
How is Tidepay different from other crypto payment gateways?+
Most crypto gateways receive your customers' payments into their own wallets, convert them with a spread, and pay you out later — and their "subscriptions" are a new invoice every month that the customer has to pay by hand. Tidepay is non-custodial recurring billing: the customer approves once, every renewal is charged automatically, funds go wallet-to-wallet in seconds, revenue can be split among up to 10 recipients in the same transaction, and the network fee is on us.
Does Tidepay hold or custody funds?+
No. Tidepay is non-custodial. Subscribers grant an on-chain ERC-20 allowance when they subscribe, and each charge executes as a direct transferFrom pull from the subscriber's own wallet straight to the merchant's (and, where configured, the platform's) address in a single transaction. There is no intermediate wallet holding customer balances at any point. Paying by transfer works the same way: on EVM networks the address the customer sends to is a vault owned by no one, which can only pay out to the merchant and the payment's other recipients; on Solana, the customer's own Solana Pay transaction pays every recipient directly.
When do I receive my money? Do I need to withdraw?+
Immediately, and no. Each charge moves funds from your customer's wallet straight to yours in the same transaction — settlement takes seconds (the live average is on our homepage). There is no Tidepay balance to withdraw, no payout schedule and no withdrawal fee.
Is there a spread or conversion fee?+
No. A plan priced in a stablecoin is charged exactly that amount. A plan priced in a local currency (such as BRL or EUR) is converted at the market rate at the moment of each charge, with no markup. Tidepay's only fee is its percentage of each successful charge.
Do I need to go through KYC to use Tidepay?+
No. Tidepay doesn't ask merchants for identity documents or business verification (KYC/KYB) to start billing. Because Tidepay never holds your funds, there's no account balance to verify you against — you sign up, add your payout wallet and start selling.
Are there chargebacks?+
No. On-chain transactions are irreversible by design, so there's no chargeback mechanism the way there is with cards. This also means merchants aren't exposed to chargeback fraud — a settled charge is final.
Who pays the network gas fee?+
Tidepay pays the gas of every recurring subscription charge, so neither you nor your subscribers need a gas balance to keep a subscription running. The payer covers the network fee of the transactions they sign themselves: the one-time approval that starts a subscription, and one-time payments.