Your subscriber list, without a 10% tax on it
Readers subscribe in stablecoins and each renewal settles to a wallet you control. No newsletter platform skims the list you built, the small monthly price keeps its margin, and a reader whose card is declined abroad can still pay.
Where a paid newsletter loses money it already earned
Why does a paid subscriber net you less than they pay?
Four ways a newsletter platform and card rails thin out subscription revenue before it reaches you.
The platform bills a percentage of your whole list
You built the audience; the platform charges to bill it anyway. Substack keeps 10% of subscription revenue, and card processing lands on top of that. On a few thousand paying readers the platform's share alone is a meaningful sum leaving every month — a rate it sets, climbing in step with your own growth.
A flat per-charge fee eats a small monthly price
After the platform's share, card processing adds roughly 2.9% + $0.30 a charge. On a $7 subscription that fixed 30 cents is most of the fee, so the cheap monthly tiers writers rely on are exactly where stacked fees bite hardest — two cuts on a price neither you nor the reader chose.
The payout processor decides which writers get paid
The platform pays out only into a fixed list of countries. Write from outside it and you either can't take paid subscribers at all or route money through a workaround that adds delay and a conversion margin — your right to earn pinned to where your bank happens to sit.
Expired cards churn readers who meant to stay
Many recurring-card failures each month aren't people quitting — they're cards that expired or got reissued. The reader still wants the newsletter; the renewal fails in the background, no one updates the card, and a subscriber who never chose to leave is dropped from the paid list.
What a wallet-paid subscription fixes at each leak
What changes when subscriptions are paid in stablecoins?
Take the platform and the stored card out of the loop and each leak above closes — the take rate, the per-charge floor, the payout list, and the silent card lapse.
The whole subscription price credits your Paymos balance
A reader pays the stablecoin to your Paymos balance. No platform percentage on the subscription and no second processor cut — a single 1.0% per settled renewal, with the on-chain gas absorbed in that same fee. The 10% that used to leave on every reader stays with the writer.
The cheap monthly tier finally keeps its margin
A wallet payment has no fixed per-charge floor, so a $5 or $7 tier isn't gutted by a flat 30 cents the way cards charge it. The low prices that barely clear on card rails hold their margin — and the same flow scales to a list of thousands of small renewals.
Where you live stops gating what you earn
There's no approved-payout-country list in the way. A writer in Lagos or Buenos Aires receives the same stablecoin, the same way, as one in London — no payout processor deciding the work is allowed to earn. Readers pay you from anywhere their wallet reaches, too.
A read issue can't be clawed back
An on-chain payment has no dispute window, so a reader can't read the issues and then reverse the charge. Paired with the missing platform cut, the gap is real money kept on every subscriber, every cycle — one low fee where a platform slice plus card processing used to stack. Exact rate in the Pricing block below.
How a newsletter wires the payment to the paid list
Which integration fits how you publish?
Three ways to wire a stablecoin payment to a paid-subscriber flag — pick by where your list lives.
Embedded Checkout — subscribe on your own site
Drop the payment widget onto your subscribe page so a reader upgrades without leaving. You issue each renewal invoice, the widget takes the payment, and an HMAC-SHA256 signed webhook flags the reader as paid the instant the payment confirms.
See details
Webhook gating — Ghost and self-hosted lists
Run Ghost or a self-hosted list and gate the paid tier on payment. The reader pays, the webhook hits your site, the paid-member flag is set on confirmation; a renewal keeps it and a lapse clears it. Your roster of who gets the paid issues stays correct without you touching it.
See details
Payment Links — annual plans and one-off issues
Create a fixed invoice for an annual plan, founding subscription, or single premium issue and place the link in a free post or email. Confirmation can add the reader to the paid list without a separate checkout implementation.
See detailsThe same rail, four ways a reader subscribes and renews
What does a subscription look like from the reader's side?
Four setups a newsletter runs on one rail — a monthly tier, an annual plan, a founding cohort, and a reader abroad.
Monthly tier — Embedded Checkout
On upgrade, the subscribe page opens the renewal invoice for the selected tier. The confirmation webhook marks the reader as paid and releases the next issue. Each later period uses a new invoice, so there is no stored card or silent bank decline.
Annual plan — Payment Link
A loyal reader takes the annual plan to commit for the year. They tap the link, pay the stablecoin you price it in, and a year of access is flagged on confirmation. The net amount after processing credits your Paymos balance up front — nothing held in reserve, nothing released on a schedule.
Founding cohort — Payment Links
You open a founding-subscriber tier at launch. Each reader follows a link, pays from a wallet, and the founding list fills as confirmations land. The whole cohort settles up front to fund the run, and once the issues ship a founding seat is paid for good.
Reader abroad — Embedded Checkout
A reader in a country your old platform wouldn't pay out from subscribes anyway. They pay the same stablecoin you price in, the webhook flags them as paid, and the money's already in your wallet — no country allowlist deciding whether either of you can take part.
Paid newsletters on stablecoins
Frequently asked questions
How does a reader get added to my paid list when they pay?
Does this work with Ghost, beehiiv, or a self-hosted newsletter?
How do recurring subscriptions work without a stored card?
Which networks and stablecoins should I accept for small subscriptions?
Can readers in any country subscribe and pay?
How fast is a new subscriber on the paid list after paying?
Honest disqualifier
When NOT to use Paymos for a paid newsletter
Four newsletters a card-first platform will serve better — be honest about which one you are.
Your readers will never set up a wallet
A paid newsletter lives on the seconds after a reader decides you're worth a few dollars a month. Ask someone who's never held a stablecoin to fund a wallet in that moment and you lose more subscribers than any fee would. Keep card checkout primary and offer the wallet tier to the readers who already want it.
The recommendation network is what fills your list
When a steady share of new subscribers arrives through the platform's recommendation feed, its 10% is buying you distribution, not only billing. Paymos moves payments — it sends no readers your way. Where the feed demonstrably brings the people, that cut can still be a fair trade; collect direct on the readership you brought yourself.
Your renewal count leans on auto-charge
A wallet can't be pulled, so every cycle the reader gets an invoice and renews on purpose — or doesn't. A subscriber base kept alive by people forgetting to cancel shrinks the moment renewal becomes a conscious choice. If forgetting is doing your retention, a stored-card platform is the honest tool.
The newsletter is free and tips are rare
If everything is free and money shows up only as the occasional thank-you, renewal invoices and paid-list gating are machinery with no job to do — a single payment link covers the tips. Come back once there's a real paid tier to run; that's where this rail starts earning its keep.
Related flows
Other Creators & Media sub-niches on Paymos
Pricing
1.0% per settled renewal — no 10% list tax, no per-charge floor
The same 1.0% on a $5 monthly tier and a $70 annual plan, network gas covered inside it, with no per-charge floor to gut the cheap tiers. Substack keeps 10% and bills card processing on top; you replace the pair with one fee. High-volume newsletters qualify for 0.3% on request.
See pricing