Quote lock

What it does

When an invoice is created, the gateway converts your price into an amount of crypto at the current rate and holds that amount for a fixed period. The customer sees a countdown. If they pay inside it, you receive what you expected regardless of what the market did meanwhile.

That is the mechanism behind the claim that merchants are barely exposed to volatility, and the catalogue records which providers publish their window. The exposure is real and it lasts minutes, and the provider prices it into the spread.

What happens when it expires

This is the question worth asking, because the answers differ and your customer sees the difference. Some providers refresh the quote and show a new amount. Some mark the invoice expired and require a fresh one. Some accept a late payment at the original rate and absorb the gap.

The last is the friendliest and the least common. The second produces the most support tickets, because a customer who was slow now has to start again and some fraction will have sent the money anyway. The volatility guide covers what to ask.

Where it matters most

At a counter. A customer standing in a shop while a quote expires is a worse experience than the same thing happening in a browser, which is one reason point of sale acceptance leans toward fast networks and stablecoins where the lock rarely matters.

What to ask a provider

How long the window is, what happens when it expires, and whether a late payment is credited at the original rate or rejected. Three questions, and the answers differ enough across this category that they are worth asking of every shortlisted provider.

Then test it. Let an invoice expire and pay it anyway, before launch rather than after. It costs a few dollars and it converts an unknown into a documented behaviour your support team can answer from.