INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
BitPay was founded in 2011, when few companies accepted digital coins.Consumers and businesses are increasingly starting to use digital
tokens other than Bitcoin for purchases, according to BitPay Inc., 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 told Bloomberg
Ether purchases accounted for 15% of the total, stablecoins were 13% and new coins added to BitPay in 2021 -- Dogecoin, Shiba Inu and
Consumers also tend to move to stablecoins -- whose value is supposed to stay steady -- when crypto prices drop, and they've been falling
Coins like Doge also made a splash last year, thanks to fans like Tesla Inc
Chief Executive Elon Musk, who on Friday said the token can be used to buy the company's merchandise.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
Many remember Bitcoin's first commercial transaction, in which a programmer spent Bitcoins now worth billions on two pizza pies.When they
did spend their crypto, many bought luxury good like jewelry 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 Chief Executive
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 June 30,
2021.BitPay, with its $1 billion in annual transaction volume and 80 employees, helps companies ranging from Microsoft Corp
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
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 startup ThingTech, and was also senior vice president of product management, strategy and marketing at Fiserv
Inc.'s electronic billing and payments division.A growing list of companies including PayPal Holdings Inc
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
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
A lot of it has to do with what we think about timing
