What it is
NOWPayments is a crypto payment gateway launched by ChangeNOW. Merchants plug it in to accept bitcoin, stablecoins and several hundred other assets, with automatic settlement into a currency of their choice. The affiliate program pays for introducing merchants who then process transaction volume.
The deal
The 25% is the number to read carefully. It is not 25% of the payment volume, and not 25% of the merchant’s fee either. It is 25% of the profit NOWPayments keeps from that fee after its own costs. NOWPayments works the example itself: a $1,000 transaction yields roughly 63 cents. This only becomes real income from merchants pushing serious volume. The duration is the other problem. The program page calls the rewards lifetime and then defines lifetime as five years with a possible extension, while NOWPayments’ own 2026 guide states that rewards stop automatically one year after each referral. Because the company publishes two contradictory figures, no duration is shown here. Commission increases are promised for hitting performance milestones, but no thresholds or rates are given.
Getting paid
Payouts are pulled rather than pushed. Once your balance passes $50 you click Request Payout in the affiliate section of the dashboard, then email the team your wallet address and preferred coin to confirm. You can do this as often as you like as long as the balance clears the threshold. No processing time is published.
The rules
NOWPayments publishes no affiliate terms document, so there are no stated rules on paid search, brand bidding, coupon sites or self-referral. Its own guide lists social platforms, crypto forums, YouTube, Telegram, email and Google Ads as places to promote, but that is marketing advice rather than a policy you could rely on if a dispute came up.
What isn’t published
NOWPayments publishes an affiliate page but not the full terms. Anything it doesn’t state — thresholds, payout timing, cookie window — is left blank here rather than guessed, and shows as a dash in comparisons.
Sources
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