Paying at Square merchants
Bread lets you pay directly from your wallet at millions of Square merchants worldwide. No card needed, no separate payment app — you spend your bitcoin or stablecoin balance right from Bread.
This turns Bread into something most crypto wallets aren’t: a wallet you can actually use to buy things.
How it works
1. Open Bread at checkout
When you’re at a Square merchant — a coffee shop, restaurant, retail store, or any of the millions of businesses using Square — open Bread and tap “Pay.”
2. Scan or tap
Bread generates a payment that the merchant’s Square terminal can read. Depending on the setup, you’ll either scan a QR code on the terminal or tap your phone if the merchant supports NFC payments.
3. Settlement is instant
The payment settles immediately. The merchant receives dollars — they never have to think about crypto. On your end, the equivalent value is deducted from your wallet balance. The whole process takes a few seconds.
What you spend from
When you make a payment, Bread deducts from your available wallet balance. You can configure which asset to spend from:
- Bitcoin — Bread converts the necessary amount to dollars at the current market rate and sends the payment
- USDC — Already dollar-denominated, so it converts 1:1 with no market rate exposure
If you’d rather not sell bitcoin to pay for coffee, keep a USDC balance in Bread for daily spending and hold your bitcoin separately. Bread makes it easy to separate your spending money from your savings.
Fees
There are no transaction fees from Bread for payments. Zero. The merchant pays their standard Square processing fee (which they’d pay regardless of how you pay), but you pay nothing beyond the purchase amount.
If you’re paying with bitcoin, the conversion to dollars happens at the current market rate with no spread or markup added.
Where you can pay
Bread payments work at any merchant using Square for payment processing. Square is used by millions of businesses across the US, Canada, Japan, Australia, the UK, and more. You’ll find Square everywhere from local coffee shops to large retail chains.
You can usually tell if a merchant uses Square by the hardware at checkout — the signature white reader or the Square Terminal.
Tax implications
When you spend bitcoin to make a purchase, it may be treated as a taxable event depending on your jurisdiction. If the bitcoin you’re spending has appreciated in value since you acquired it, you may owe capital gains tax on the difference.
Spending USDC generally does not trigger capital gains since its value is stable relative to the dollar. This is another reason to keep USDC for daily spending.
Bread does not provide tax advice. Consult a tax professional for guidance specific to your situation.
Troubleshooting
Payment didn’t go through
Make sure you have sufficient balance in your wallet. If you’re paying with bitcoin, your balance needs to cover the dollar amount at the current market rate. Also confirm the merchant is using Square — Bread payments don’t work with other payment processors.
Merchant doesn’t see the payment
If the QR scan or NFC tap didn’t register, try again. Payments settle on Bread’s end instantly, so if the deduction shows in your wallet but the merchant doesn’t see it, there may be a connectivity issue on the merchant’s terminal. Ask them to check their Square dashboard.