The High-Risk Merchant Landscape: 675 Merchants, 15 Verticals

Most data about high-risk payment processing is anecdotal — a forum post here, a vendor claim there. This report is different: it's drawn from Kashu's own pipeline of 675 high-risk merchant applications across 15 distinct verticals. It shows which kinds of businesses actually get pushed out of mainstream processing and have to seek a high-risk merchant account — the real shape of high-risk demand, not a guess.

High-risk demand by vertical

Peptide and research-compound businesses dominate, making up roughly 63% of high-risk applications — a direct reflection of how aggressively mainstream aggregators deplatform that category. But the long tail is wide: 15 different verticals appear, from supplements and CBD to credit repair and subscription commerce.

How these merchants fulfill

Among applicants who disclosed their fulfillment model, the split skews heavily to in-house operations rather than third-party logistics:

That matters for underwriting: in-house operators tend to have tighter control over product claims and customer support — two of the biggest levers on chargeback risk in high-risk categories.

What this means if you're a high-risk merchant

• You're not alone, and you're not a special case. Across 15 verticals, the same pattern repeats: legitimate businesses pushed out of Stripe/PayPal/Square for category reasons, not fraud.
• Your vertical has a known underwriting path. Whether you sell peptides, supplements, CBD, or run a subscription model, these are boarded routinely — the question is documentation and disclosure, not whether it's possible.
• Concentration cuts both ways. The heavily-represented verticals (peptides, supplements) face the most scrutiny — which makes clean RUO labeling, COAs, and honest product claims the difference between approval and decline.