BitPay improved the referral payout settlement time from 24 hours to under 30 minutes for BTC destinations today. The improvement comes from pre-signed transactions and accelerated network routing - payout transactions are signed in advance and broadcast with above-market fees when the destination address is provided.
USD wallet credit payouts remain instant - when a referral credit is earned, it is added to the recipient's USD balance immediately, with no waiting period. The 30-minute improvement applies to BTC payouts specifically, where the recipient has provided a BTC address for direct transfer.
Common scenarios: a referral recipient runs an active card program and wants immediate liquidity for top-ups (BTC payout, no waiting). A referral recipient accumulates credits and converts them all to BTC at month-end for tax planning (the speed is less important). A referral recipient runs an arbitrage setup that depends on fast credit arrival (the speed is critical). The 30-minute timing serves all three scenarios.
The accelerated fee bidding means referral BTC payouts may cost BitPay more in network fees during congestion periods. This cost is absorbed by BitPay, not the recipient - recipients receive the full credit amount in their wallet, regardless of network conditions. BitPay treats the accelerated fees as a customer-experience investment.
