Bitcoin stands to lose its dominant status as the preferred choice for crypto payments. BitPay, one of the world’s largest crypto payments processors divulged that consumers and businesses are increasingly starting to use digital tokens other than Bitcoin for purchases. In an interview with Bloomberg, the firm said that Bitcoin usage at Bitpay merchants has significantly reduced from 92% in 2020 to almost 65% in recent times.
On the other hand, the alt coins’ use has started to rise due to their growing adoption by businesses that have begun using stablecoins for cross-border payments. Another reason for its growing popularity is that users have started favoring stablecoins whose values are perceived to remain unaffected from volatility. Not only that, even meme coins like Doge continued garnering massive attention last year, thanks to dog-token proselytizer Elon Musk.
BitPay was founded in 2011, a time where only a handful of entities accepted digital assets. Today it processes an average of 66,000 transactions per month compared to its larger rival, Visa’s volume that processed a staggering 206 billion transactions in 2021. Nevertheless, BitPay, with its $1billion annual transaction volume has enabled companies ranging from Microsoft Corp. to AT&T Inc. to accept cryptocurrency payments.
Bitcoin and Co’s dull outlook are not deterring payment firms
As days go by, more merchants are now accepting crypto payments. Last year, BitPay partnered with VeriFone to enable digital coins at its terminals at various stores. The latest to make its entry is US multinational fintech PayPal Holdings which is currently working on its in-house stablecoin. Taking about how the late 2021 marketwide slump has been failed to deter crypto investors, Stephen Pair, Chief Executing Officer of Bitpay stated,
The recent downturn hasn’t affected crypto investors’ spending habits as much as in the crypto winter of 2018. While luxury spending has been hit, the overall declines have been much smaller, perhaps a sign of confidence that the current downturn could be short-lived, or that crypto has a much broader base of users. We have not experienced as much of a decline in volume with this recent pullback. It’s probably just a reflection of more and more companies that need to use this as a tool to conduct payments.
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