Bitcoin Stopped Waiting for a Block and Solana Lost Its Memo. What Both Changes Did

In September, Bitcoin payments took a median of 14 minutes and 16 seconds to complete, while Solana lagged behind other checkout options at the same merchants. These figures no longer reflect current performance after two changes introduced late in the year. On 28 May 2026, CoinGate began accepting Bitcoin payments up to 100 EUR before on-chain confirmation, using a specialist provider to verify transactions instantly rather than waiting for a block. The change reduced the median Bitcoin payment time to 7 minutes for qualifying orders, though larger payments still require confirmation.

The zero-confirmation policy applies only to Bitcoin payments under 100 EUR, which account for about five out of six on-chain Bitcoin orders processed by CoinGate. Before the change, 29.0% of these smaller payments took longer than twenty minutes; afterward, that dropped to 14.1%. The share of payments completed within five minutes rose from fewer than one in twenty to more than half every week since 31 August. The median time for Lightning payments remained the fastest at 46 seconds.

Solana payments previously shared a single address with a memo field to identify orders, but incorrect or missing memos often left payments unassigned. On 21 July 2026, CoinGate switched to dedicated addresses for each Solana order, eliminating the memo and reducing errors. The change improved Solana’s completion rate, closing a thirty-point gap to Litecoin within a month. Completion is measured as the share of orders paid after a shopper selected SOL, including refunded orders.

The improvements were measured using CoinGate’s own order data pulled on 30 September 2026. Bitcoin times track the payment clock from network selection to order confirmation, split at 100 EUR. Solana completion and times cover orders where SOL was chosen, with medians reported as approximate quantiles. Neither change required adjustments from merchants using the platform.