Colorado Cafes Take Bitcoin as CoinGate Reports Faster Checkout and Korean Firms Test Merchant Payments

Bitcoin is being spent at Colorado counters while payment providers and Korean financial firms work on faster, simpler merchant checkout.

Four developments this week show different stages of crypto payments at a shop counter. In Colorado, two cafes are already taking Bitcoin, though the buyer's experience still depends on whether staff can activate the option at the register. CoinGate has published new order data on changes to Bitcoin and Solana checkout, giving merchants a clearer view of payment speed and completion. In South Korea, Gwangju Bank and Toss have finished a technical test that moves a stablecoin payment from a bank app through a merchant QR terminal. Separately, KB Kookmin Card and SBI Holdings agreed to study payments for Japanese visitors. The Korean projects remain tests and proposals, not services that shoppers can use today. Taken together, the events put the practical questions in focus: what happens on the terminal, how reliably an invoice gets paid, and who receives the funds.

Moonflower Coffee and Butcher Block Cafe Take Bitcoin at Colorado Counters

Moonflower Coffee and the Butcher Block Cafe location on Washington Street in Denver were both taking Bitcoin when a reporter visited them in Colorado. At Moonflower, the barista enabled the Bitcoin option on a Square register before the customer paid for coffee. The Butcher Block location also accepted it for a meal. Those are observed purchases at particular stores, not evidence that every branch of either business accepts Bitcoin.

The visit also found a cafe listed on a Bitcoin merchant map whose owner declined a Bitcoin purchase. A directory of shops accepting cryptocurrency can help buyers find a place to start, but a listing or a compatible terminal does not guarantee that staff will offer Bitcoin at checkout. Buyers should confirm acceptance with the specific location before ordering.

Square's merchant instructions say eligible sellers can present a Lightning QR code or, on a compatible Register, let buyers select Bitcoin on the customer-facing display. The seller may choose to receive Bitcoin or converted dollars. For small in-person purchases, that gives a cafe a familiar point-of-sale flow while the customer pays from a Bitcoin wallet.

CoinGate Reports Faster Small Bitcoin Payments and More Completed Solana Orders

CoinGate published updated checkout data on October 8 after changing how it handles two payment flows. For on-chain Bitcoin orders of up to €100, the median time to mark a paid order as paid fell from 14 minutes 48 seconds before the change to 3 minutes 45 seconds in its late-August-to-September sample. CoinGate began accepting eligible small Bitcoin payments before their first block confirmation in May, subject to a specialist risk check. Payments that do not pass still wait for a block.

The provider also replaced Solana's shared address and required memo with a distinct address for each order in July. Its reported share of selected Solana checkouts that were completed rose from 46.0% in June to 77.2% in September through the 27th. This is CoinGate's own merchant-order dataset, not a market-wide result. It also reports that faster Bitcoin acceptance barely changed the share of shoppers who selected Bitcoin and then paid.

For merchants comparing crypto payment gateways, these figures separate two different problems. A faster paid status reduces the wait for a completed order; an order-specific address reduces mistakes that leave a payment unmatched. Neither improvement by itself proves that more shoppers will choose crypto.

Gwangju Bank and Toss Complete a Stablecoin QR Checkout Trial

Gwangju Bank and Toss completed a proof of concept connecting the bank's mobile app, the Toss app and Toss Place merchant terminals for a stablecoin QR payment. In the test flow, a customer selected stablecoin payment in the bank app, scanned a merchant terminal's QR code through Toss, confirmed the amount, and sent the asset between crypto wallets. The transaction result appeared back in the bank app.

The companies plan a second technical test to reduce the number of customer steps and are discussing trials with merchants in the Gwangju and Jeonnam regions. No commercial launch date or supported stablecoin has been announced. A merchant considering whether to accept crypto payments should therefore treat this as evidence of a working app-to-terminal prototype, not an available payment option.

Customers and cashiers will need a shorter sequence of screens and a clear indication that payment has finished. The next trial will test whether that flow works at actual local businesses.

KB Kookmin Card and SBI Agree to Study Stablecoin Spending by Japanese Tourists

KB Kookmin Card, SBI Holdings, Everspin and SBI Everspin signed an agreement on October 13 to test AI-agent identity and permissions and study cross-border digital payments. A later stage would examine whether Japanese visitors could use digital assets, including stablecoins, at South Korean merchants. The companies also intend to explore integration with KB Pay.

The proposed payment work includes more than the moment of checkout. The partners plan to examine merchant settlement, cancellations, refunds and fraud handling before deciding whether a consumer service is viable. Their first test concerns agent identity and delegated authority, so tourist stablecoin purchases are an area of study rather than a launched feature.

If the payment work advances, it could give travel services that accept crypto and local retailers a way to serve visitors without a separate payment instrument. The agreement does not yet establish which assets, stores or launch date such a service would support.