&gt; Also, I imagine CNY -&gt; USD conversion is probably done on an exchange instead of through a company like BitPay, so the comparison might not be very accurate.<p>There is no such thing as a Forex exchange, it is done through banks who hedge their exposure to other market participants over-the-counter and take a cut just the same.<p>There is absolutely no reason (in the long term) that Bitcoin would cost more to exchange for merchants than any foreign fiat currency does today.<p>And even today, a ~1% Bitcoin processing fee is approximately 1&#x2F;3 to 1&#x2F;2 of what credit cards cost to process.