Since early 2026, Walmart has been allowing its customers to pay with Bitcoin and Ethereum via its OnePay app. The retail giant is thus embracing cryptocurrencies, but without supporting external wallets. This partial integration has drawn some criticism.
Walmart accepts Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies
According to US media outlet CNBC, retail giant Walmart has been accepting payments in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies since the beginning of the year.
This has been made possible by the expansion of its OnePay payment service, launched in late 2025 in partnership with Zerohash, to include direct Bitcoin payments at the checkout.
OnePay is the financial services platform developed by Walmart, combining several features such as mobile banking, digital wallet, debit card rewards, and payment management.
Accessible via an app, it allows users to track their finances, make payments, benefit from simple management tools for their daily purchases, and now exchange cryptocurrencies.
CNBC reports Walmart will now accept Bitcoin, Ethereum, and crypto payments in store for its 1 billion monthly customers. https://www.cnbc.com/articles/walmart-will-now-accept-bitcoin-ethereum-and-crypto-payments-at-the-checkout-for-its-1-billion-monthly-customers-20230101
BULLISH – CNBC reports Walmart will now accept Bitcoin, Ethereum, and crypto payments in store for its 1 billion monthly customers. pic.twitter.com/43L4eCEyWd
— Altcoin Daily (@AltcoinDaily) January 4, 2026
With the new “OnePay Cash” feature, users can now benefit from a cryptocurrency conversion service: customers can pay in Bitcoin, which is automatically converted into dollars at checkout, making it easier to use cryptocurrencies in everyday shopping.
This service has several objectives, such as offering greater flexibility to Walmart’s 150 million weekly customers in the United States, but also to foreign customers who pay in Bitcoin and cryptocurrency, saving on exchange fees.
However, Walmart has been accepting Bitcoin payments since 2021, not in the United States, but in El Salvador. Since the adoption of the Bitcoin Ley by the Bukele government, large companies have been accepting BTC payments. Despite recent changes to the law, Walmart continues to do so locally.
It was probably this first experience in El Salvador that prompted Walmart to take the plunge on a larger scale. By internalizing its payment infrastructure, the company is also seeking to reduce its dependence on third-party providers.
The downsides of crypto payments via OnePay
While Walmart’s announcement marks a new milestone in the adoption of Bitcoin in retail, the integration offered via OnePay is far from complete.
In practice, it is not possible to pay directly with an external Bitcoin/Lightning wallet. To use Bitcoin at Walmart, customers must currently go through OnePay Cash, transfer their funds to the platform, and accept their automatic conversion to dollars at the time of payment.
This process therefore relies entirely on a trusted third party: Walmart itself, assisted by its partner Zerohash for the crypto infrastructure. Users no longer have direct control over their private keys, which is an essential condition for the financial sovereignty that Bitcoin allows. This is no longer a case of self-custody, but rather a centralized custody model, similar to that of banks or traditional exchange platforms. In this sense, OnePay does not allow consumers to freely choose how they want to spend their BTC. The experience is simplified, certainly, but at the cost of abandoning the fundamental principles of Bitcoin: independence, absence of intermediaries, and total control of funds.
