Crunchfish

Returning change to customers paying with physical cash is one of the most persistent operational pains for merchants who handle cash. This logistical challenge arises from:

• Uncertainty in Daily Cash Requirements: Merchants need to ensure they have sufficient coins and small denomination banknotes to provide change to customers, often over-preparing to cover unknown demand.
• Cost of Coin Circulation: Change is often in small denominations requiring coins which are both expensive to produce for the central bank and cumbersome to manage, driving up cash handling costs due to their inefficiency, weight, and the logistical burden of ensuring availability.
• Cash Management Overhead: Merchants must handle cash distributions daily, managing restocking and reconciliation processes that are time-intensive and inefficient.

These challenges make returning change one of the most costly aspects of operating a cash-handling business and represents a growing pain point for merchants across markets with high cash usage.

Crunchfish’s patented Digital Cash solution decreases the need for merchants to handle physical cash for returning change, streamlining operations at the point of sale. The solution leverages offline payment technology, which allows merchants to return change digitally using Offline Wallets. Customers only need Offline Terminals, which can securely receive the digital change using proximity communication methods such as QR codes, Bluetooth, or NFC.

The retail payment process at a merchant is simple to understand:
 

1. Customer Pays with Physical Cash: The customer uses physical banknotes to settle the transaction with the merchant.
2. Merchant Returns Digital Change: Instead of giving back coins or small denomination cash, the merchant signs out the exact change digitally using an offline wallet.
3. Customer Receives Change Digitally: The customer receives digital cash in their offline terminal, creating a seamless experience that aligns with the customer's existing payment habits.

When either the customer or the merchant goes online the change moves from the merchant’s to the customer’s account which is the foundation of Crunchfish’s patened signature Reserve, Pay, and Settle approach with digital IOUs.

This use case is particularly compelling in the roll-out of Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) systems: By returning change digitally, the solution bridges the gap between physical cash and digital cash, creating a seamless transition for users accustomed to cash. The solution is also very natural for CBDCs, as customers are paying with central bank-guaranteed physical cash and having the change is returned as CBDC.

To successfully deploy this solution in the market, payment network providers play a critical role by equipping users with the ability to receive offline payments. This is in line with Crunchfish’s “third times the charm” go to market srategy where the payment network provider should equip users with offline terminals as this enables universal access. Anyone who can make payments online can now receive payments offline. Enabling all users to receive change digitally is the critical first step to creating the foundation of an offline payment system in a market and accelerates the enduser adoption of offline wallets to make digital payments more resilient.

This approach not only resolves the merchant’s pain point regarding coin handling but also paves the way for offline ecosystems to scale efficiently, making Crunchfish’s offering vital for central banks, payment networks and payment service / application providers alike to deliver a robust payment ecosystem for both endusers and merchants.

Crunchfish’s CEO, Joachim Samuelsson, will present this innovative solution at the following industry-defining conferences hosted by Currency Research: Currency Research Asia Cash Cycle Seminar, in Bali – September 22-24, and Currency Research Americas Cash Cycle Seminar, Miami – November 3-6.

For more information, please contact:

Joachim Samuelsson, CEO of Crunchfish AB

+46 708 46 47 88

joachim.samuelsson@crunchfish.com 

This information is Crunchfish AB obliged to publish in accordance with the EU Market Abuse Regulation. The information was provided by the above for publication on 05th June 2025 at 08:00 CET.

Västra Hamnen Corporate Finance AB is the Certified Adviser. Email: ca@vhcorp.se. Telephone +46 40 200 250.

About Crunchfish – crunchfish.com

Crunchfish is a deep fintech company pioneering a Digital Cash solution that enhance resilience, flexibility, and scalability in payment ecosystems. The patented offline payment architecture supports both payment network providers and payment service providers in modern commercial payment systems and evolving CBDC initiatives. Headquartered in Malmö, Sweden, Crunchfish drives innovation to shape the future of payments.