https://ift.tt/3rEuZoa Gaining Ground on Bitcoin for Merchant Payments

A new report claims that while businesses are increasingly turning to Bitcoin for payments, $ETH, $DOGE, and fiat-backed stablecoins are gaining in popularity. 

According to a report by Fortune, crypto payment processor BitPay is claiming that Bitcoin’s use by merchants dropped to 65% of all processed payments, down from 92% in 2020. Ethereum purchases accounted for 15% of the total, while stablecoins made up 13%. The report highlighted that newcomers to BitPay in 2021, including Dogecoin, Shiba Inu and Litecoin, were responsible for 3% of all payments. 

The report claims that crypto investors may have been reluctant to spend Bitcoin due to its massive price gain in 2021, instead opting for less volatile altcoins and stablecoins. BitPay said that Bitcoin spenders primarily used their wealth on luxury goods, such as jewelry, watches, cars and boats. 

According to BitPay’s Chief Executive Officer Stephen Pair, transaction volumes for luxury goods surged to 31% in 2021, compared to 9% the year before. Overall payment volumes on the platform rose 57% year over year. 

While Pair admitted that BitPay’s business “ebbs and flows” to some degree with the price of crypto, he said the current correction had yet to cause a significant change in volume. He said the platform’s growing stability was likely a reflection of “more and more companies” using BitPay to conduct payments. 

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