A study called The new Cryptocurrency Payments Playbook: Cryptocurrencies Gain Momentum as a Payment Option by PYMNTS, a payments-focused publication, found that a majority of crypto holders are interested in using cryptocurrency as a payment option online. The study also revealed that about half of crypto asset owners are curious about loans in cryptocurrency.
Interest in cryptocurrency as payment
The study surveyed 8,008 users and nonusers in the U.S. to examine if and how they plan to accept cryptocurrency as payment option, and if they want merchants to accept payments in cryptocurrency. The study revealed the following main results:
- 60.1% of owners are very or extremely interested in cryptocurrency as payment option to make online purchases that are more private or secure, compared to only 22.5% of people that don’t own crypto.
- 57.4% of owners are very or extremely interested in merchants that accept payments in cryptocurrency automatically, compared to only 20.8% of nonusers.
- 56.7% of owners are very or extremely interested in using gains from cryptocurrency investments to make a big purchase rather than cashing it out, compared to 20.4% of nonusers.
- Finally, 51.1% of users are interested in crypto as an asset that enables you to obtain a loan to make a purchase, compared to 16.4% of nonusers.
That indicates a pretty high interest from consumers in merchants that accept payments in cryptocurrency. About half of users are not “HODLers” but are willing to part with their crypto to pay for goods and services, meaning companies and websites should be interested in capturing this market. The interest in crypto loans underscores this even further, implying that half of crypto owners don’t see it as a store of value but as money that can and should be used to purchase real-world goods.
Why merchants should start to accept payments in cryptocurrency
Given that about one-fifth of nonusers expressed interest, merchants might be asking themselves if and how to target these users by accepting crypto payments. It turns out that knowledge is the key to unlocking this share of the market. 75% of nonusers indicated a lack of knowledge as the reason for never having purchased crypto. A distant second reason was crypto not being accepted enough with 33.3%. Only 25% found crypto too volatile as a payment option, indicating volatility isn’t much of a barrier to overcome.
Hence, merchants would be well-advised to not only adopt cryptocurrency as payment option, but also educate their users about it. After all, crypto provides a frictionless and fast payment option with lower fees for both parties. Ironically, onboarding users to crypto may not be the task of protocols and companies directly built on the blockchain, but that of Web 2.0 and traditional companies adapting to the innovation. How fast cryptocurrency as payment option will become mainstream is anyone’s guess, though. Given the regulatory uncertainty and ever-changing rules around the space, it’s hard to blame merchants for trying to stay on the safe side. Still, those who take the plunge early are likely to reap the biggest rewards once mass adoption happens.
