89% of crypto buyers want fees shown in real costs, not percentages: Paybis

Paybis, a global crypto and fiat infrastructure provider, today released new research showing that unclear fee presentation remains a major trust barrier for crypto buyers, especially when platforms advertise simple percentage fees without showing what customers actually receive after costs and exchange-rate spread.

The usability study on the platform found that 84.9% of users preferred a full fee breakdown over a single bundled total, while 88.9% preferred seeing exact fee amounts in EUR or USD rather than percentages. Another 64.3% favoured seeing each fee labelled separately, such as platform fee, network fee, and payment fee, instead of one broad service-fee line.

The findings point to a broader issue in crypto access: the advertised fee is often not the full cost. Paybis’ own research illustrated that out of 22 leading crypto platforms, less than 2 showed full fees up front in their exchange forms. A platform may show a low percentage fee, but the amount of crypto a user receives can still be reduced by spread, network costs, payment processing costs, or bundled charges disclosed late in the checkout flow. Paybis’ research suggests that users want platforms to explain this before they commit.

The clearest alternative, according to Paybis, is net received: the actual amount of crypto or fiat that lands in the user’s wallet after fees and exchange-rate spread. Unlike a headline percentage, net received shows the outcome of the transaction in practical terms.

“Users reject platforms without clear licensing and clear fees – the era of hidden fees is coming to a close as trust becomes the major deciding factor for choosing a crypto platform,” said Innokenty Isers, CEO and Co-Founder at Paybis. “Crypto platforms often ask people to make decisions using incomplete information: a percentage fee, a quoted rate, or a final total that appears too late. Fee clarity means showing the real cost before the user commits, in exact amounts, with the final net received clearly visible.”

Paybis’ fee research also found that users often prefer more detail when it is presented in plain language. While some users favored simpler grouped displays, the main source of confusion was not the existence of fees themselves, but unclear labels and missing context around what each cost means.

For Paybis, the result is a clearer product principle: users should be able to see the key components of a transaction, understand what each one means, and compare the net received before moving forward.