- BitPay’s CEO has expressed optimism on future cryptocurrency adoption following a slew of positives.
- He comments that the recent hearing between cryptocurrency executives and CEOs in Washington is a positive indicator.
- Crypto adoption has recorded a significant jump in the last 12 months, per a recent Grayscale report.
Cryptocurrency adoption is at an all-time high but Bitpay’s CEO thinks this is not the peak. He expects to see even greater adoption as we roll into 2022.
Further Adoption
Stephen Pair, BitPay’s CEO and co-founder told CNBC Squawkbox that aside from being a store of value, cryptocurrencies are increasingly becoming used as a currency. He uses BitPay’s metrics over the last 12 months as proof of the growing adoption rates.
“We support about 14 different currencies on our platform. This year, we’ve seen a 57% increase in payments, so that is huge for us from last year,” Pair said. “Recently we’ve seen a huge uptake in the use of stablecoins – probably our fastest growing payment method on our platform. People are buying everything from luxury goods, electronics, boats, cars, real estate and everything you can think of.”
BitPay provides Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash payment processing services for merchants and has been in operation since 2011. The Atlanta-based payment company has recorded a steady increase in the number of businesses signed up to the platform. In 2011, BitPay had less than a thousand merchants but by 2014, the figure had risen to over 10,000 and has shown no signs of slowing down. Presently, over 65,500 transactions are processed through the month on average with 55% of the payments being made through Bitcoin.
Pair revealed that BitPay was working on revealing new brands that will begin to accept cryptocurrencies as a payment mechanism. “There will come a day when you will walk into a restaurant and that [crypto] will be a payment option alongside others,” he said.
Stablecoins Are The Biggest
Pair stated that although he thinks all the big cryptocurrencies will be utilized as a means of payment in the future, he believes stablecoins will be the most adopted by users. He notes that BitPay’s biggest growth has come in the form of stablecoins with more users relying on them for everyday use.
The global stable coin market cap has been on the steady rise since the start of 2021. Tether’s USDT and Circle’s USDC are the largest with a combined market capitalization of $117 billion. There has been increasing talk about stiffening stablecoin regulations in the US that could see them be regulated like banking institutions. The President’s Working Group on Financial Statements made similar recommendations in their stablecoin report.
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