According to payments giant FIS, using cryptocurrency as a form of payment is still a fringe activity. Its Global Payments Report published last month found that cryptocurrency was used for $1 out of every $500 of e-commerce payments, or less than 0.2% of e-commerce transaction values. Still, that amounted to $11.6 billion in 2022, with FIS estimating a figure of $39 billion in 2026.
However, to put the $11.6 billion figure for all crypto payments in context, the transaction value processed on the Bitcoin network alone was $8.2 trillion in 2022. In other words, a very tiny proportion of public blockchain transactions are used for payments.
That said, FIS says that merchants are open to accepting crypto as payments because they tend to have higher transaction values, they receive the money faster, and the fees are lower.
One low effort way that merchants accept crypto is when cryptocurrency exchanges provide their customers with Visa or Mastercards, which can be used for any payments, with the crypto exchange making the switch from cryptocurrency to fiat.
The other way is cryptocurrency payment gateways. One of the first and highest profile ones is BitPay, but Coinbase and others also provide gateways.
A FIS survey shows people are conceptually more keen on the idea of crypto payments. It found that 77% of people buy crypto for investment, and 18% plan to use them for payment. A Visa survey last year found that two-thirds of Southeast Asians are keen to use crypto for payments.
