Crypto Checkout Cost, October 2026

Dated snapshot. Every price in this edition was captured on October 22, 2026, between 9:05:52 and 9:06:57 AM MST (Arizona time), except the rows marked as captured outside the window. Prices are not updated after capture; the next edition will have its own capture window.

The crypto checkout cost for October 2026 is a median 1.0% over bank wire: on October 22, 2026, a 1 oz American Gold Eagle paid in crypto listed for 1.01% to 2.08% more than the same coin paid by check or wire at the 5 dealers we priced, APMEX, SD Bullion, Kitco, Bullion Standard and Hero Bullion. Against card or PayPal, the crypto price at those 5 dealers was 1.92% to 3.03% lower (median 3.0% lower).

This is the first edition of a monthly report. It compares what each dealer charges for the same coin under three ways to pay. It does not compare dealers' coin prices with each other, and it isn't advice on whether to buy gold or how to pay.

October 2026 in four numbers

The 5 dealers fall into two groups. APMEX, SD Bullion and Kitco listed crypto 1.01% to 1.04% above check/wire, about $42 to $45 on one Gold Eagle. Bullion Standard and Hero Bullion listed crypto 2.00% to 2.08% above check/wire, about $85 to $87 on one Gold Eagle. With an odd count the median is APMEX's own figure, the middle value, so the per-dealer rows below say more than the median does.

Measured prices, October 22, 2026

One 1 oz American Gold Eagle listing per dealer, quantity 1, lowest quantity tier, read from each dealer's own product page between 9:05:52 and 9:06:57 AM MST on October 22, 2026. Prices are USD before sales tax and shipping. Label: measured (prices), inferred (percentages and dollar gaps). At capture, APMEX's page header showed gold at $4,063.80, down $97.70 (2.34%) on the day (measured, as served by APMEX).

APMEX's product page says its crypto column (through BitPay) includes "a 3.0% cash discount" and that CC/PayPal is the full list price, and the listed crypto price was 3.00% below card (measured, 9:05:53 AM). A second read in a browser at 9:14:49 AM showed the same 3.00% gap; it falls outside the capture window, so the table uses the 9:05 capture. APMEX's payment FAQ words its discounts differently (see the conflicts list).

Hero Bullion's listing is the 2026 coin; we found no random-year 1 oz Gold Eagle on Hero Bullion's Gold Eagle page on October 22, 2026. Because each row compares one dealer's own three prices, a different year or tier doesn't change that dealer's gap much, but it does mean the coin prices themselves aren't like for like across rows.

Hero Bullion's product page says crypto gets "a 2% discount compared to our card pricing". Its listed crypto price was 1.92% below card and exactly 2.00% above check/wire, so the 2% appears to be applied from the wire price (inferred from the listed prices).

Captures outside the October headline

These dealers' product pages couldn't be read in the 9:05:52 to 9:06:57 AM capture window on October 22, 2026. JM Bullion was read in a browser later that morning; the others' most recent measured prices are from October 20, 2026. Gold moved during the morning and between the dates, so these rows stay out of the median and range above.

Silver Gold Bull's US product pages list check/wire and card prices but no crypto price, so its crypto gap stays "no data" rather than being estimated from its published 3%.

Pending dealers

Of the 14 dealers we list, 5 were priced in the October 22, 2026 capture window and counted, JM Bullion was priced later the same morning, and 3 more have October 20 prices above. The other 5 are pending:

• BGASC: its product page returned an access block (HTTP 401) to our reader on October 22, 2026.
• Money Metals Exchange: blocked (HTTP 403) on October 22, 2026; Money Metals publishes no crypto discount (its page mentions "a modest transaction fee"; checked October 16, 2026).
• SchiffGold: its crypto instruction page returned 404 on October 17 and 19, 2026 and was blocked on October 22, 2026; no per-method product prices captured yet.
• Sharps Pixley: prices in pounds sterling (UK); not yet in this USD basket.
• Ainslie (Ainslie Crypto): Australian; crypto is traded through its own desk, so there is no card/crypto/wire price on one product page.

Published terms for all 14 listed dealers

What each dealer writes about paying with crypto, from the dealer's own pages as stored in our dealer data. Label: published. "unknown" means we found nothing published. "Checked" is the last date we read that dealer's pages; "re-read Oct 22" marks pages we read again for this report.

Seven of these coin lists (JM Bullion, APMEX, Bullion Standard, BGASC, Silver Gold Bull, Provident Metals and Sharps Pixley) still name BUSD, which Paxos stopped minting in February 2023 (Paxos, retrieved October 20, 2026). Check with the dealer before paying in BUSD.

Three more dealers are in our records but not listed: Bitgolder (flagged), Ounceo (unverified) and Goldmoney (excluded; it says it exited crypto). They are not part of this report.

Changes log

This is the first edition, so October 2026 is the baseline. Next month's log will list every change in discounts, coins, limits and ID rules against the terms above.

What we saw on October 22, 2026 when re-reading dealer pages:

• No term changes on the pages we re-read (APMEX payment FAQ, SD Bullion payment page, Bullion Standard FAQ, Hero Bullion payment page, Kitco payments FAQ). Measured, Oct 22, 2026.
• Hero Bullion's Gold Eagle product page now names six coins (BTC, BCH, ETH, WBTC, DOGE, LTC) "and more"; our stored list said only "BTC and other BitPay coins". Measured, Oct 22, 2026.

Revision, October 22, 2026, 9:20 AM MST (before publication): APMEX moved into the headline. Its product page's 3.0% crypto discount matches its listed prices, so the earlier "unresolved" treatment was dropped. n went from 4 to 5, the crypto vs wire median from +1.5% to +1.0%, and the crypto vs card median from -2.5% to -3.0%. Ranges are unchanged. JM Bullion's row now shows its October 22 browser read (outside the window, not counted).

Conflicts still open on October 22, 2026:

• Bullion Standard, 3% vs 2%. Its FAQ says crypto orders "may receive a 3% discount" and its Gold Eagle page says "receive a 3% discount from an item's full list price", but the listed crypto price was exactly 2.00% below card on October 20 and October 22, 2026. Only a checkout test would settle which applies.
• Hero Bullion's crypto maximum. Its payment page shows $500,000 in the summary table and $20,000 in the text (re-read October 22, 2026).
• Provident Metals' crypto maximum. $100,000 in help article 212 vs $1,000,000 in help article 247 (read October 19, 2026).
• ID thresholds at BGASC and Provident Metals. Both state a one-time BitPay identity check over $3,000 in help articles that describe Bitcoin payments (BGASC's last updated May 27, 2023); whether the same threshold applies to their other coins isn't stated.
• SchiffGold's crypto page. The how-to page returned 404 on October 17 and 19, 2026; its FAQ and terms still list bitcoin.
• APMEX's wording. Its product pages say crypto (through BitPay) includes a 3.0% discount from the CC/PayPal list price, and the listed prices match (3.00% below card on October 22, 2026). Its payment FAQ says shown prices include the 4% discount "unless you choose to pay by credit card, PayPal, Bitcoin and Bitcoin cash", naming no crypto discount. We report the listed prices, which are what a buyer pays. A third-party comparison site's claim that APMEX charges crypto buyers full list price (retrieved October 19, 2026) doesn't match the listed prices.
• SD Bullion's wording. Its payment page says "Bitcoin is not eligible for the 1% cash discount", while its blog states a 3% Bitcoin discount off the card price. The listed prices match the blog (3.03% below card, 1.01% above wire).

Method

• Capture day and time. One capture day per edition. October 2026: Thursday, October 22, 2026, 9:05:52 to 9:06:57 AM MST, all five headline pages read within about one minute. Reads outside the window (JM Bullion at 9:14:41 AM) are shown but not counted. The proposed fixed day for later editions is the first Monday of the month, 9 to 10 AM MST.
• Product. One 1 oz American Gold Eagle listing per dealer, random year where the dealer sells one, the same URL each month where possible.
• Quantity. 1 coin, priced at the lowest quantity tier shown.
• Payment columns. "Check/wire" is the dealer's check, eCheck or bank wire column. "Crypto" is the dealer's crypto or Bitcoin column. "Card" is the dealer's credit/debit card or PayPal column (the highest of the three prices at every dealer here).
• Arithmetic. Crypto vs wire = crypto ÷ wire - 1; crypto vs card = crypto ÷ card - 1. Percentages rounded to two decimals; the headline median to one decimal. With 5 values the median is the middle one; with an even count it is the average of the middle two.
• No imputation. A price we couldn't read is "no data". We don't fill gaps from published discounts or from another day's capture.
• Not included. Sales tax, shipping, insurance, network fees and the dealer's price lock window. Gold moves during the day, and dealers' own invoices are final.
• Labels. Measured = read on the dealer's own page (or our own data). Retrieved = a third-party source. Inferred = our arithmetic or reading.
• How dealers get added. A dealer joins the headline when its product page shows check/wire, crypto and card prices that we can read on the capture day. We aim to add more dealers each month and will report n every time.

This report compares payment costs only. It isn't financial or investment advice and doesn't predict gold prices.

Download the data

• Prices: crypto-checkout-cost-2026-10.csv
• Published terms: crypto-checkout-cost-2026-10-terms.csv
• Both layers: crypto-checkout-cost-2026-10.json

Each price row has the date, dealer, product, quantity, card, crypto and wire prices, source URL, checked-at time and label. Free to reuse under CC BY 4.0: cite "CoinsForGold" with a link to this page.

For a plain-language explainer of when crypto costs more or less than other payment methods, see Is it cheaper to buy gold with Bitcoin?. Dealer profiles: compare all 14 dealers. How we check figures: methodology.

Dealer links on this page are plain links to each dealer's own website. We have no approved affiliate programs as of October 22, 2026, so none of these links pays us; affiliate links will be labelled if that changes (disclosure).