Stable coin and Bitcoin payments via Toast POS

[colecarden]

Hello everyone,

About a year ago, I flagged that Block (formerly Square), one of Toast’s major competitors in the restaurant POS space, was experimenting with enabling Bitcoin Lightning Network payments on their terminals. As of yesterday, they’ve officially announced the rollout of this feature across eligible merchants.

This signals something bigger than just a tech upgrade — blockchain-based payments are moving from fringe to functional. The industry is rapidly approaching a tipping point, and it’s not just tech companies pushing the frontier anymore — the U.S. government and the banking system is catching up too.

The GENIUS Act, now advancing through Congress, is poised to provide a clear regulatory framework for stablecoins. This legislation could allow companies, not just banks, to issue branded stablecoins and integrate directly into payment ecosystems with regulatory clarity.

This is where Toast has a huge opportunity.

Imagine a Toast-branded stablecoin that:

• Reduces transaction fees compared to traditional credit card networks.

• Powers loyalty programs and cashback rewards natively.

• Enables instant, programmable payments for takeout, delivery, and dine-in.

• Creates an ecosystem where Toast merchants benefit from faster settlements and lower costs.

• Allows Toast to capture a small fee from stablecoin usage, creating a new recurring revenue stream, like how USDT (Tether) generates billions via strategic treasury operations with 75 employees.

As a POS and restaurant ecosystem deeply integrated into merchant operations, Toast is uniquely positioned to lead this movement. You already own the infrastructure, the app, and the trust of thousands of businesses.

If JP Morgan and Bank of America are preparing to launch their own stablecoins, why not Toast?

Stablecoins — when built responsibly and under a compliant framework — could become one of the most profitable financial primitives of the next decade. I urge Toast to consider the long-term vision here: this isn’t about hype. It’s about evolving the way restaurants interact with money, loyalty, and customers in a way that matches where the world is headed.

We’re already seeing this play out with our online shopping. We recently enabled Bitcoin Lightning payments through Shopify, and we’ve had real customers use it. The challenge, though, is that it doesn’t integrate with our Toast sales data or POS workflow, which creates a disconnect for reporting and customer flow.

Would love to hear if Toast has any plans or internal discussions on this front.

Cheers,

Cole

Here's the Block announcement of BTC Lighting Payments: Squre Bitcoin Payment Announcement 

[Rob]

Thank you for taking the time to share this. I will share it with my team!