TechCentralTechCentral
    Facebook Twitter YouTube LinkedIn
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn YouTube
    TechCentral TechCentral
    NEWSLETTER
    • News

      Hein Engelbrecht to lead Mustek on interim basis

      24 May 2022

      Management shake-up at TymeBank – including a new CEO

      24 May 2022

      Datatec in talks over Analysys Mason unit

      24 May 2022

      Samsung’s eye-popping spending plan: R5.7-trillion over five years

      24 May 2022

      Jo’burg seeks private sector help to solve electricity crisis

      23 May 2022
    • World

      Terra collapse triggers $83-billion DeFi slump

      24 May 2022

      Zuckerberg sued in personal capacity over Cambridge Analytica

      24 May 2022

      Is the end of the bitcoin winter nigh?

      24 May 2022

      Zoom leaps higher on upbeat forecast

      24 May 2022

      Michael Dell becomes kingmaker in Broadcom, VMware deal

      23 May 2022
    • In-depth

      Bernie Fanaroff – the scientist who put African astronomy on the map

      23 May 2022

      Chip giant ASML places big bets on a tiny future

      20 May 2022

      Elon Musk is becoming like Henry Ford – and that’s not a good thing

      17 May 2022

      Stablecoins wend wobbly way into the unknown

      17 May 2022

      The standard model of particle physics may be broken

      11 May 2022
    • Podcasts

      The rewarding and lucrative careers to be had in infosec

      23 May 2022

      Dean Broadley on why product design at Yoco is an evolving art

      18 May 2022

      Everything PC S01E02 – ‘AMD: Ryzen from the dead – part 2’

      17 May 2022

      Everything PC S01E01 – ‘AMD: Ryzen from the dead – part 1’

      10 May 2022

      Llew Claasen on how exchange controls are harming SA tech start-ups

      2 May 2022
    • Opinion

      A proposed solution to crypto’s stablecoin problem

      19 May 2022

      From spectrum to roads, why fixing SA’s problems is an uphill battle

      19 April 2022

      How AI is being deployed in the fight against cybercriminals

      8 April 2022

      Cash is still king … but not for much longer

      31 March 2022

      Icasa on the role of TV white spaces and dynamic spectrum access

      31 March 2022
    • Company Hubs
      • 1-grid
      • Altron Document Solutions
      • Amplitude
      • Atvance Intellect
      • Axiz
      • BOATech
      • CallMiner
      • Digital Generation
      • E4
      • ESET
      • Euphoria Telecom
      • IBM
      • Kyocera Document Solutions
      • Microsoft
      • Nutanix
      • One Trust
      • Pinnacle
      • Skybox Security
      • SkyWire
      • Tarsus on Demand
      • Videri Digital
      • Zendesk
    • Sections
      • Banking
      • Broadcasting and Media
      • Cloud computing
      • Consumer electronics
      • Cryptocurrencies
      • Education and skills
      • Energy
      • Fintech
      • Information security
      • Internet and connectivity
      • Internet of Things
      • Investment
      • IT services
      • Motoring and transport
      • Public sector
      • Science
      • Social media
      • Talent and leadership
      • Telecoms
    • Advertise
    TechCentralTechCentral
    Home»Sections»Cryptocurrencies»Bitcoin’s dominance in crypto payments is starting to wane

    Bitcoin’s dominance in crypto payments is starting to wane

    Cryptocurrencies By Olga Kharif17 January 2022
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email

    Consumers and businesses are increasingly starting to use digital tokens other than bitcoin for purchases, according to BitPay, one of the biggest crypto payments processors in the world.

    Last year, bitcoin’s use at merchants that use BitPay dropped to about 65% of processed payments, down from 92% in 2020, the company said. Ether purchases accounted for 15% of the total, stablecoins were 13% and new coins added to BitPay in 2021 — dogecoin, shiba inu and litecoin — accounted for 3%.

    The alternative coins’ use surged partly as more businesses have begun using stablecoins for cross-border payments. Consumers also tend to move to stablecoins — whose value is supposed to stay steady — when crypto prices drop, and they’ve been falling since early November. Coins like doge also made a splash last year, thanks to fans like Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who on Friday said the token can be used to buy the company’s merchandise.

    BitPay helps companies ranging from Microsoft to AT&T accept cryptocurrency payments

    With bitcoin’s price rising 60% last year, despite the fourth-quarter volatility, many investors may also have chosen to hold onto the world’s biggest cryptocurrency instead of spending it. Many remember bitcoin’s first commercial transaction, in which a programmer spent bitcoins now worth billions of dollars on two pizzas.

    When they did spend their crypto, many bought luxury good like jewellery and watches, cars, boats — and even (cover your ears) gold, which bitcoin — touted as digital gold — is supposed to replace, according to BitPay. The Atlanta-based private company’s transaction volumes related to luxury goods surged 31% last year from 9% in 2020, said CEO Stephen Pair. The company’s overall 2021 payment volumes rose 57% year over year.

    BitPay was founded in 2011, when few companies accepted digital coins. Today it processes an average of about 66 000 transactions per month. That’s a tiny fraction of, say, Visa’s volume: the credit-card network processed 206 billion transactions in the year ended 30 June 2021.

    BitPay, with its US$1-billion in annual transaction volume and 80 employees, helps companies ranging from Microsoft to AT&T accept cryptocurrency payments.

    Barometer

    It can also serve as an industry barometer. At least so far, the recent downturn hasn’t affected crypto investors’ spending habits as much as in the crypto winter of 2018, Pair said. While luxury spending has been hit, the overall declines have been much smaller, he said — perhaps a sign of confidence that the current downturn could be short-lived, or that crypto has a much broader base of users.

    “Our business ebbs and flows to some degree with the price, when the price goes down, people tend to spend less,” Pair said. “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.”

    More merchants are accepting crypto payments now. Last year BitPay began working with VeriFone to accept digital coins at its terminals at various stores.

    For its part, BitPay is showing signs of confidence as well. It just appointed Jim Lester its first-ever chief operating officer to expand the business. Lester previously headed start-up ThingTech, and was also senior vice president of product management, strategy and marketing at Fiserv’s electronic billing and payments division.

    Dogecoin has gained a measure of popularity for payments, thanks in large part to Tesla CEO Elon Musk

    A growing list of companies including PayPal are stepping into crypto payments as well, showing the payments market’s growth potential.

    “PayPal getting into this space has been great for our business, because it causes companies to start asking the question of should they accept crypto payments,” Pair said. BitPay had close to 50% revenue growth last year, he said.

    The company has raised $72-million from the likes of Index Ventures and Founders Fund. It doesn’t expect to go public, raise another funding round or sell in the near term, though it has talked about an IPO internally, Pair said.

    “We really like where we are strategically,” Pair said. “This space is still very young. A lot of it has to do with what we think about timing. In the next couple of years we are likely to see very substantial growth.”  — (c) 2022 Bloomberg LP

    Bitcoin BitPay dogecoin Elon Musk ether litecoin Shiba Inu
    Share. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email
    Previous ArticleMatric results online: Where to find them
    Next Article The metaverse will be built on the blockchain

    Related Posts

    Terra collapse triggers $83-billion DeFi slump

    24 May 2022

    Hein Engelbrecht to lead Mustek on interim basis

    24 May 2022

    Management shake-up at TymeBank – including a new CEO

    24 May 2022
    Add A Comment

    Comments are closed.

    Promoted

    Generalists tend to outperform specialists when the going gets tough

    24 May 2022

    Vodacom champions innovation acceleration in Africa

    23 May 2022

    Kyocera answers top 10 questions on enterprise content management

    23 May 2022
    Opinion

    A proposed solution to crypto’s stablecoin problem

    19 May 2022

    From spectrum to roads, why fixing SA’s problems is an uphill battle

    19 April 2022

    How AI is being deployed in the fight against cybercriminals

    8 April 2022

    Subscribe to Updates

    Get the best South African technology news and analysis delivered to your e-mail inbox every morning.

    © 2009 - 2022 NewsCentral Media

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.