Complete guide, 2026
How to pay for hosting with crypto. Without losing a cent.
Paying in crypto is easy once you know the three things nobody tells you: networks matter more than coins, exchanges shave their fee off your payment, and a confirmed payment is final. Here’s the whole process, start to finish, ending with a running server.
- XRPXRP Ledger, 1 confirmation4 sec
- SOLSolana, 32 confirmations13 sec
- USDC (Solana)Solana, 32 confirmations13 sec
- BNBBNB Smart Chain, 15 confirmations45 sec
- TRXTRON, 19 confirmations57 sec
- USDT (TRC-20)TRON, 19 confirmations57 sec
- ETHEthereum, 64 confirmations13 min
- USDC (Ethereum)Ethereum, 64 confirmations13 min
- USDT (ERC-20)Ethereum, 64 confirmations13 min
- BTCBitcoin, 2 confirmations20 min
- XMR (manual)Monero, 10 confirmations, checked by hand20 min+
The short answer
Pick the coin and network your invoice shows, send from a wallet or exchange that supports that exact network, and make sure the amount that arrives matches the invoice. Pay before the price quote expires, then wait for the confirmations.
At LiteKeep that’s all it takes: top up from $20 in any of ten coins, with no card and no ID, and deploy a server from your balance. Below: every step, and a free tool to check the address before you send.
Crypto is the easiest way to pay for hosting. No card to share, no bank deciding whether your purchase is allowed, no ID form.
A crypto payment is final once it confirms, so you want to get it right the first time. That’s easy once you know where people slip.
Here’s the deal: the payments that go wrong fail in one of a few avoidable ways. Wrong network. Fee taken off the amount. Address copied from the wrong place.
This guide walks through the whole process and puts a guard rail at each of those spots. The chart above shows how fast each coin reaches your LiteKeep balance: under a minute for the fastest.
In this guide you’ll learn
- Wallet or exchange: what you need before you pay
- Which coin and network to choose, and which to avoid
- Step-by-step payment, with a free address checker
- The exchange fee trap that makes payments arrive short
- Confirmations: what they are and how long they take
- Paying with Monero: the one extra step
- What to do if you sent the wrong amount, coin or network
Chapter 1
Before you pay
You can pay from a crypto exchange account or from your own wallet. Both work. They just fail in different ways.
Paying from an exchange
Exchanges like the one you bought your crypto on let you withdraw to any address. That withdrawal is your payment.
Two things to watch: the exchange picks the network from a list, and it usually takes a withdrawal fee. Sometimes that fee comes out of the amount you typed. Chapter 4 shows why that matters.
Paying from your own wallet
A wallet you control gives you more say over the network and the fee. It also puts one more job on you: you need a little of the network’s own coin to pay the network fee.
- USDT on TRON needs TRX. A token transfer uses network resources, and if your account doesn’t have enough, the network burns TRX to cover it.
- USDT or USDC on Ethereum needs ETH. Every Ethereum transaction pays gas in ETH, and the price rises when the network is busy.
- USDC on Solana needs a little SOL for the fee.
- Bitcoin, ETH, BNB, SOL, XRP, TRX, Litecoin and Monero pay their fee in the same coin you’re sending. An XRP Ledger account also keeps a small reserve that can’t be sent, so you can’t empty it completely.
Chapter 2
Which coin and network to choose
“USDT” isn’t one thing. The same token exists on several blockchains, and they can’t talk to each other. The network is the part that matters.
Here’s everything we accept, with how to recognise each network’s addresses:
| Coin | Network | Address starts with | Fee paid in | Credited after |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bitcoin (BTC) | Bitcoin | 1, 3 or bc1 | BTC | 2 confirmations |
| USDT | TRON (TRC-20) | T | TRX | 19 confirmations |
| USDT | Ethereum (ERC-20) | 0x | ETH | 64 confirmations |
| USDC | Ethereum (ERC-20) | 0x | ETH | 64 confirmations |
| USDC | Solana | A letter or digit, never 0x | SOL | 32 confirmations |
| Ether (ETH) | Ethereum | 0x | ETH | 64 confirmations |
| BNB | BNB Smart Chain | 0x | BNB | 15 confirmations |
| Solana (SOL) | Solana | A letter or digit, never 0x | SOL | 32 confirmations |
| XRP | XRP Ledger | r | XRP | 1 validated ledger |
| TRON (TRX) | TRON | T | TRX | 19 confirmations |
| Litecoin (LTC) | Litecoin | L, M or ltc1 | LTC | 6 confirmations |
| Monero (XMR) | Monero | 4 or 8 | XMR | 10 confirmations, then a check by our team |
So which should you pick?
Pick the one you already hold, on a network your wallet or exchange supports. Converting just to pay usually costs more than any difference between networks. Choosing between the two USDT networks? See USDT on TRC20 or ERC20, with measured fees.
If you’re buying fresh: XRP, Solana and USDT on TRON reach your balance fastest of our options, in about a minute or less. Bitcoin is the most widely available. Monero gives you the most payment privacy, at the cost of one extra step.
Two look-alikes we don’t accept
Chapter 3
Step by step: paying an invoice
Here’s exactly how a top-up works on LiteKeep. Most crypto checkouts follow the same pattern.
Choose an amount
From $20. The invoice locks the price for 30 minutes, so the crypto amount won’t move while you pay.
Pick the coin and its network
For example USDT on TRON. The invoice shows the network in large type, because sending on the wrong one is the most expensive mistake there is.
Copy the address and amount
Use the copy buttons or scan the QR code. Never type an address by hand, copy it from an old transaction, or take it from a chat message.
Check the address before you send
Paste it into the checker below. It tells you which network the address belongs to and whether a character is wrong.
Send the exact amount, on the same network
If your exchange takes its fee from the amount, add the fee on top. Chapter 4 shows how.
Save the transaction ID
Your wallet or exchange shows a transaction ID (TXID) after sending. Keep it until your balance updates.
Close the page if you like
Once the invoice says “Payment seen”, we watch the network for you and credit your balance after the confirmations.
Check the address before you send
Pick what your invoice asks for, paste the address, and the checker tells you whether they match. It catches the most common expensive mistake: a TRON address for an Ethereum payment, or the other way round. Bitcoin addresses carry a checksum, and so do mixed-case Ethereum addresses, so it also catches typos.
Checked in your browser. The address is never sent anywhere.
Paste an address to check it.
Once you’ve sent, your invoice moves through four statuses:
- 1WaitingInvoice created. Price locked for 30 minutes.
- 2Payment seenYour transaction is on the network, not yet confirmed.
- 3ConfirmingBlocks are being added on top of it.
- 4CreditedConfirmations reached. Your balance is updated.
Chapter 4
Getting the amount right
Every crypto checkout says “send the exact amount.” Almost none tell you why that often fails.
Here’s the trap. Many exchanges take their withdrawal fee out of the amount you type. You type the invoice amount, and slightly less arrives.
- Invoice asks for50.03 USDTThe exact amount on your invoice
- You type50.03 USDTInto your exchange’s withdraw form
- Exchange keeps-1.00 USDTExample withdrawal fee, taken from the amount
- Network delivers49.03 USDTWhat actually arrives
The fix: if your exchange shows a “receive amount”, make that match the invoice. Or add the fee on top of what you type.
Look for a field called “receive amount” or “you will receive” on the withdraw screen. Make that number match the invoice. If there isn’t one, add the fee on top of what you type.
What happens if the amount is off?
Here’s how we handle it, so a small slip never costs you your top-up:
| Situation | What we do |
|---|---|
| You sent a little less | We credit what actually arrived, at the rate you were quoted. No penalty. |
| You sent a little more | We credit what actually arrived. The extra is yours to spend or refund. |
| You paid after the invoice expired | We keep watching for 72 hours, then our team checks it and credits it if it matches. |
| You used the wrong network | Usually unrecoverable by anyone. Contact support anyway, with the TXID. |
| You sent a different coin | Contact support with the TXID. We can only act if the funds reached an address we control. |
Chapter 5
Confirmations and how long it takes
A payment that has just appeared on the network isn’t final yet. Confirmations are how it becomes final.
Each new block added on top of your transaction is one confirmation. The more blocks on top, the harder it is to undo. That’s why every host waits for a few before crediting.
How many? It depends on the network. Six Bitcoin confirmations, about an hour, is the usual rule for large payments. For top-ups of the size people pay for hosting, we credit Bitcoin after two, so you wait about 20 minutes instead. Faster networks need more blocks for the same certainty, which is why TRON, Solana and Ethereum use higher counts. The XRP Ledger is different: a ledger is final once validated, so one is enough.
| Network | Confirmations | Typical time |
|---|---|---|
| XRP Ledger (XRP) | 1 validated ledger | A few seconds |
| Solana (SOL, USDC) | 32 | Under a minute |
| BNB Smart Chain (BNB) | 15 | About a minute |
| TRON (TRX, USDT) | 19 | About a minute |
| Ethereum (ETH, USDT, USDC) | 64 | About 13 minutes |
| Litecoin | 6 | About 15 minutes |
| Bitcoin | 2 | About 20 minutes |
| Monero | 10, then a person checks | About 20 minutes, plus the check |
My Bitcoin payment has been unconfirmed for hours
That usually means the network fee was low and miners are processing higher-paying transactions first. Some wallets let you raise the fee afterwards. If yours doesn’t, the payment typically confirms when the network gets quieter. Either way, keep the TXID, and remember we keep watching for 72 hours after the invoice expires.
Chapter 6
Mistakes and how to recover
Something went wrong. Don’t panic, and don’t send anything else yet. Here’s what to do.
- Find the transaction IDHow to check: It’s in your wallet’s or exchange’s history. Everything else depends on it.
- Check what actually arrivedHow to check: Paste the TXID into a block explorer for that network and note the amount, address and confirmations.
- Contact support with the detailsHow to check: Send the TXID, the network, the amount and the time to [email protected].
- Never share your seed phrase or private keyHow to check: No real support team asks for them. Anyone who does is trying to empty your wallet.
Wrong network: can it be recovered?
It depends on where it went:
- Between very different networks (say, a TRON payment to an Ethereum address): almost always lost. The two chains don’t share addresses.
- Between networks that share the 0x format (say, Ethereum and BNB Chain): the funds sit at the same address on the other chain. Only the holder of that address’s keys can move them, so contact support quickly. We can’t promise anything, but if there’s a way, we’ll look for it.
MythA “recovery service” can get lost crypto back for a fee.
People promising to recover crypto for a fee are a common scam. Don’t pay them. Talk to our support instead, for free.
MythThe blockchain can reverse a mistake.
No one can reverse a confirmed transaction. Only the receiver can send funds back.
MythIf it arrived on the wrong network, it’s gone instantly.
Not always. Between 0x networks, funds may still be at the same address. Ask quickly.
Chapter 7
Paying with Monero
Monero hides the sender, receiver and amount by design. That’s the point of it. It also means we can’t match your payment automatically.
Instead, you give us two values from your wallet that prove you sent a specific amount to our address, without revealing anything else.
Pay the invoice as normal
Send the exact XMR amount to the address shown.
Find the transaction ID and key
Your wallet shows both for each payment you send, in the desktop wallet and on the command line.
Enter them on the invoice
A person on our team checks them against our address and credits your balance, around the clock.
Chapter 8
Privacy, refunds and records
Paying in crypto keeps your card and your bank out of it. Here’s what a payment shows, and what we keep.
What a crypto payment reveals
Bitcoin transactions are public and permanently stored, and so are payments on every coin we accept except Monero, which hides amounts and addresses on its chain. Want the payment itself kept private? Pay in Monero.
What we know about you either way: your email address, your country, and a keyed hash of the IP addresses you log in from. We don’t ask for your name, ID or card. See exactly what we keep.
Refunds
Credit you paid for is yours. Ask, and we send it back in crypto after checking. Promotional bonus credit isn’t refundable. Because crypto can’t be pulled back, a refund is a new payment from us to an address you confirm.
Renewals
Hourly servers draw from your prepaid balance, so there’s nothing to renew: just top up when your balance runs low. We email you at about 72 and 24 hours of credit left. Yearly plans are paid upfront for 12 months.
Keep records
Every top-up has an invoice in your console. Keep it with the TXID for your own records.
Quick answers
Is the price fixed while I pay? Yes, for 30 minutes from when the invoice is created.
Can I pay with the Lightning Network? Not yet. We only list networks we can verify safely.
What’s the minimum? $20 for a top-up.
Now it’s your move
Crypto payments go wrong in a handful of predictable ways. Now you know every one of them, and our checkout guards against each.
Match the network. Make the received amount match. Check the address. Keep the TXID.
Ready? Top up from $20 and spend it on any server, by the hour, the year, or once, in any of 15 countries. If it isn’t right, delete it and the hourly billing stops with it. No crypto yet? Here’s how to get your first coins.