What "fast" means in practice
Solana produces blocks around every 400 milliseconds. We credit SOL and SPL-token deposits at a confirmation depth tuned to the chain's finality model — in wall-clock terms, a customer's payment typically reaches paid in seconds, not the tens of minutes a Bitcoin checkout budgets for. For in-person or live-chat sales where the buyer is literally waiting, that difference is the whole user experience. (You can raise your own confirmation threshold per coin in settings if your risk posture wants more depth; you can't lower it below the platform floor.)
Fees are the other half: a transfer costs well under a cent, which makes Solana viable for small-ticket sales where a $2+ network fee on other chains would be absurd against a $5 item.
Three assets, one rail
- SOL — the native coin; volatile, so pair it with Auto Settle if you don't want the exposure.
- USDC (Solana) — the strongest USDC rail by cost: Circle-issued, sub-cent transfers, fast finality.
- USDT (Solana) — for Tether-preferring buyers; in our chain-by-chain USDT comparison, Solana lands close behind Tron on cost and ahead on speed.
One SPL detail worth knowing exists (because we handle it, not because you'll touch it): token balances on Solana live in associated token accounts that must be created before a token can land, with a tiny rent cost. Wallets handle this on the buyer's side and OrbChain handles it on the receiving side — but it's why a naive DIY integration "works in testing" and then strands a first-time payer whose destination account doesn't exist yet.
Enabling it
If you're already on OrbChain: Settings → Accepted Coins → enable SOL, USDT_SOL, USDC_SOL. They immediately appear in every surface you already use — hosted checkout coin picker, payment links, invoices, per-user static addresses — and pay out through the same payout API. Nothing else changes: same webhooks, same balance model, same 0.4%.
Starting fresh: the Solana acceptance page has the five-minute path from signup to first SOL invoice.
Merchant-side cautions, honestly
- Volatility: SOL moves. Price invoices in fiat and/or settle into a stablecoin unless you're deliberately holding.
- Wrong-network sends: a buyer holding USDT on three chains can pick the wrong one at an exchange withdrawal screen. Our checkout shows the network prominently — if you build your own UI on the API, do the same.
- Payouts are as cheap as deposits: paying out over Solana costs you effectively nothing, which makes it a good default rail for mass payouts to crypto-native recipients too.