For Digital Payments, Use Of Bitcoin Decreased In 2021

According to Bitpay Inc., one of the biggest crypto payment processors in the world, for purchases, the use of digital tokens other than Bitcoin is increasing among consumers and businesses.

Bloomberg reported, the company noted that the use of Bitcoin in merchants that use Bitpay dropped from 92% in 2020 to 65% in 2021. On the other hand, purchases from coins like Ether were at 15%, stablecoins at 13%, and Dogecoin, Shiba Inu, and Litecoin accounted for 3%.

Since November last year, as crypto prices had been dropping, businesses have started using stablecoins more for cross-border payments. Consumers have also started moving towards stablecoins as their value remains steady, providing less risk.

Holding on to Bitcoin

The trend shows that people hold onto Bitcoin more than spending it. Apart from the fourth quarter, the prices of Bitcoin rose by 60% last year. According to Bitpay, most of the previous year’s crypto transactions were in luxury goods like jewelry, watches, cars, boats, etc. Bitcoin – the digital gold is supposed to replace.

The Pizza mishap!

The infamous story of Bitcoin’s first commercial transaction is what many a time stops people from purchasing through Bitcoin. People learn from others’ mistakes, and this is precisely something that has happened in the Bitcoin sphere. At the beginning of the coin’s history, a programmer spent Bitcoins now worth billions on just two pizza pies.

What is Bitpay?

Bitpay is a Cryptocurrency payments service provider headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. It was started in 2011 when only a few companies accepted digital coins. It processes over 66,000 transactions per month today. It has helped companies ranging from Microsoft Corp. to AT&T Inc. accept cryptocurrency payments. The company has an annual transaction amounting to $1 billion with just 80 employees working for them.