28.03.2024

Coinbase’s Retail Payments Wing Crosses $200M in Transactions

That comes from a massive network: 8,000 integrated retailers now accept cryptocurrencies alongside their other payment streams. It’s a bright spot for adoption in an otherwise topsy-turvy time for bitcoin and cryptocurrency at large, which, like so much of the world, has been struggling to price in COVID-19. 

Virus or not, people are still paying for goods in bitcoin.

That’s the verdict from new numbers out of Coinbase’s retailer payment portal Coinbase Commerce, which on Thursday passed a milestone in its two-year history: $200 million in total transactions processed.

Not so for merchant crypto payments, though. Commerce product lead John Zettler told Coindesk that the team hasn’t seen any change in activity over March.

Money comes more often than not in bitcoin, Zettler said. He did not provide an exact crypto-by-crypto usage breakdown, but noted that bitcoin is far and away customers’ method of choice.

“Merchant customers often tell us it’s the crypto they’re most familiar with and the one they trust the most”, he said.

Even so, Coinbase is seeing a surge in the use of stablecoins for payment, particularly its own dollar-pegged USD Coin (USDC). USDC leads the growth pack, Zettler said. He expected to see “material growth” in stablecoin use across Q2 and Q3.

Coinbase plans to keep building out Commerce’s features in response to merchant demands, Zettler said. Most recently it debuted a “refunds” service, calling it the “next step” in normalizing crypto e-commerce.Crypto still has a long way to go. It remains a miniscule payment method within the hukling global e-commerce marketplace that totaled $3.5 trillion in sales in 2019.

CoinDesk Takes Consensus 2020 Virtual

With the COVID-19 pandemic worsening throughout the world, CoinDesk is taking immediate action on Consensus 2020. As the organizers of Consensus and Blockchain Week NYC, our goal has always been to bring the community together to educate, grow and create meaningful connections in a safe location. It is no longer possible to do that in a physical location.Nonetheless, we are seizing an opportunity to make the most of this otherwise extremely difficult situation. Consensus 2020 will now be a completely virtual experience, where attendees from all over the world can participate online at no charge. We understand that for many people the New York gathering is the big event they look forward to attending, but we are excited about the opportunity to bring far more people into the fold.

We are working with best-in-class platform providers to support this effort and are committed to bringing the entire crypto community together with the high-quality content you have come to expect from CoinDesk. With premier speakers discussing the most important topics of our time, all coordinated by CoinDesk’s experienced journalists and moderators in a rolling live TV-like experience, we are confident a virtual Consensus 2020 will be an enriching experience for our audience. And everyone can enjoy it from the safety of their homes.

If you already purchased a ticket to Consensus 2020, we will be issuing full refunds. You should expect to receive your refund within 60 days.

We are disappointed we can’t host you in New York City this year. But rest assured, Consensus will be back next year better than ever, and we’re looking forward to bringing you the complete, in-person Consensus experience in 2021.

The planning doesn’t stop there. CoinDesk continues to build and grow during these challenging times to fulfill our mandate to tell the story of the digital disruption of the global financial system. That story has never been more urgent, as this destructive virus will leave decision-makers throughout the world economy asking, “What comes next?” We’ll be probing that and many other vital questions across our multimedia, editorial, research and data offerings as CoinDesk continues to invest to become the media platform for the next generation of investing.

Thank you for your support, stay safe and see you virtually in May!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *