Ethereum pays for every card in this shop. The mechanics are the same as any other coin: confirm the order, send the exact amount to the address on the payment page, get your code once the network confirms.
What is different is gas — and specifically, that gas does not care how much you are sending. A transaction moving $5 and a transaction moving $500 cost roughly the same to execute. That single fact decides whether ETH is a good choice for your order or a bad one.
What gas actually is
Every operation on Ethereum consumes a measured amount of computation, called gas. A plain transfer uses a small, fixed amount. What moves is the gas price — what people are currently willing to pay per unit — and that is set by demand for block space, minute to minute.
Your fee is gas used × gas price. Since the first half is fixed for a simple transfer, your fee is essentially a bet on how busy Ethereum is right now.
Two consequences follow, and they are the whole story:
- The fee is unrelated to your order size. Sending $5 costs about what sending $500 costs.
- The fee swings. A quiet hour and a busy one can differ by a lot, for exactly the same transaction.
The arithmetic on a small card
This is where being honest is more useful than being encouraging.
On a $100 card, the gas fee is a rounding error. Send ETH and stop thinking about it.
On a $5 top-up during a congested period, the gas fee can be a serious fraction of the purchase — and at that point you are paying a premium for the privilege of using this particular chain. The card has not got more expensive; the transport has.
If your funds are flexible, a stablecoin on a cheap network is the better tool for small orders, and it is not close.
If your ETH is already on Ethereum and moving it elsewhere would itself cost an Ethereum transaction — you would pay the expensive fee anyway, and then a second fee on the other side — then send ETH and accept the fee. The cheapest route is usually the one your money is already on.
Check the fee before you commit, not after
Every wallet shows an estimate on the send screen, and that estimate is the truth for right now. It beats any figure published anywhere, including here.
- In a self-custody wallet, the estimate updates live. Most wallets also let you choose a speed tier — slower is cheaper, and for a gift card you plan to redeem tonight the difference is usually worth paying.
- In an exchange withdrawal, the fee is shown next to the network selector and is deducted from your balance.
If the fee looks unreasonable, it is worth waiting an hour. Congestion passes, and unlike a card payment there is no queue you lose your place in.
Sending
- Pick the card and check its region. The one mistake nobody can undo once the code is revealed.
- Sign in and confirm the order. The payment page shows the exact ETH amount, the network and the address.
- Match the network exactly. ETH exists on Ethereum and on several layer-2 networks whose addresses look identical. Send on the one the payment page names — funds sent on a different network are not delayed, they are unreachable.
- Copy the address; never retype it.
- Send the exact quoted amount. If your exchange offers to take the withdrawal fee from your balance rather than from the transfer, choose that — otherwise what arrives is short of the quote, and a short payment does not release a code.
- Wait for confirmation, then collect the code from My orders or your email.
ETH or USDT on Ethereum?
Worth separating, because they are often confused.
Paying in ETH means the asset itself is volatile — we hold the quote for a short window, so the amount you owe is fixed, but you are spending an asset whose price moves.
Paying in USDT on ERC20 means the asset is stable, but you are still on Ethereum, so you still pay Ethereum gas — and you need ETH in the wallet to pay it, because gas is never charged in USDT.
The gas cost is the same either way. The only difference is which asset leaves your wallet. Neither escapes Ethereum's fee market; only changing chain does that.
Frequently asked questions
Why is my transfer failing when I have plenty of USDT?
Because gas is paid in ETH, not in USDT. A wallet holding only stablecoins cannot move them on Ethereum. Send yourself a small amount of ETH and the transfer will go.
Can I pay on a layer 2 to save on gas?
Only if the payment page offers it for your order. It names the network; send on that one and nothing else. An address that looks valid on another network is exactly how funds get lost.
The price of ETH moved while I was sending. Do I owe more?
No. The amount was fixed in ETH when the payment page appeared and is held for a short window. If the window expires before your transfer lands, re-order at the current price — nothing is lost.
How long does an Ethereum payment take?
Usually under a minute at a normal gas price, longer when the network is busy or you chose a slow tier.
Does OnyxGift take a cut of the gas fee?
No. Gas goes to the Ethereum network. We receive the card amount, and nothing else.
Which is cheaper overall — ETH or Bitcoin?
It depends entirely on which network is busy at that moment, and both can be expensive at the wrong time. For small orders neither is the economical choice; a stablecoin on a cheap network is.
