Tag: Merchants

Gate Pay and CityPay.io Partner to Bring Cryptocurrency Payments to Georgia

by Blockchain News

Gate Pay, the cryptocurrency payment service offered by the crypto exchange firm Gate.io, has announced a partnership with CityPay.io, a startup specializing in crypto payments in Georgia. The collaboration will enable more than 600 merchants in Georgia to enjoy the benefits of crypto payment alternatives for their products and services.

By partnering with CityPay.io, Gate Pay users can connect with numerous merchants across Georgia, facilitating a wide range of daily activities such as hotel bookings, supermarket shopping and restaurant payments. Notably, restaurant chain Wendy’s is one of the partners of CityPay.io, with customers now able to make payments using cryptocurrencies for their meals.

Gate Pay’s director, Feng Zhou, stated that the launch of Gate Pay aimed to connect users with businesses, products, and applications that are friendly to cryptocurrencies. This partnership with CityPay.io allows merchants to offer their customers the option to pay with digital assets, bridging the gap between Web3 and people’s daily lives.

The collaboration between Gate Pay and CityPay.io offers a Web3 shopping experience to a broader audience of regional merchants and customers. Gate Pay’s user base and experience, combined with CityPay.io’s business network and coverage in Georgia, will facilitate this expansion.

Gate.io is no stranger to expanding its business coverage, having announced its intention to seek a crypto license in Hong Kong on February 22. The license would allow the company to introduce “Gate HK,” expanding its services to Hong Kong residents.

Georgia has emerged as one of the world’s most crypto-friendly countries, with its regulations attracting crypto companies to set up regional branches. The Georgian government has ambitions to make the country a major global crypto hub.

This partnership is a significant step towards achieving that goal. CityPay.io has already established a strong network in Georgia, and Gate Pay’s experience in the crypto industry will help expand the usage of digital assets in the country.

Gate Pay and CityPay.io’s partnership will enable merchants in Georgia to accept crypto payments, making it easier for customers to pay for goods and services. This collaboration will not only benefit the merchants but also attract more crypto users in Georgia and improve the shopping experience for both parties.

The use of cryptocurrencies as a payment method has been on the rise, with more and more businesses and individuals recognizing the benefits of using digital assets for daily transactions. The partnership between Gate Pay and CityPay.io is a significant step towards the widespread adoption of cryptocurrencies in Georgia.

As the crypto industry continues to grow, partnerships like these will become increasingly important in expanding the usage of digital assets and bridging the gap between Web3 and people’s daily lives. With the collaboration between Gate Pay and CityPay.io, Georgia is well on its way to becoming a major global crypto hub.

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BigCommerce Partners with BitPay & Coinpayments to Enable Crypto Payments for Merchants

by Blockchain News

BigCommerce on Thursday announced a strategic partnership with cryptocurrency providers BitPay and CoinPayments to deliver crypto payment solutions to BigCommerce merchants in select countries.

With BitPay and CoinPayments, a NASDAQ-listed e-commerce platform can accept a variety of cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin, Bitcoin Cash, Shiba Inu, Wrapped Bitcoin, Litecoin, XRP, and five US dollar-pegged stablecoins such as Binance USD (BUSD), Dai stablecoin (DAI), Gemini dollar (GUSD), USD Coin (USDC), and Pax Dollar (USDP).

By expanding its crypto ecosystem, BigCommerce opens up opportunities for its merchants to offer more payment options, widen its market share, tap into a new customer base, and accelerate international growth through innovation.

Marc Ostryniec, Chief Sales Officer at BigCommerce, talked about the development: “Expanding our crypto ecosystem to include trusted best-of-breed partners is just one step towards driving innovation and growth for our merchants. A new era of consumers are passionate about transacting using crypto, and we’re helping them do it.”

Helping Retailers Navigate a Changing Payment Landscape

E-commerce platforms accepting cryptocurrency are steadily increasing, an evidence that the crypto market continues to grow. The use of cryptos for online shopping has shown parallel expansion.

BigCommerce has joined a number of other e-commerce platforms that have been adding crypto payment capabilities over the past few years.

In May this year, Shopify expanded crypto payment options through a partnership with Crypto.com so its merchants can accept cryptocurrency payments from customers through Crypto.com Pay.

Last month, a Shopify Competitor called Launch Cart enabled its merchants to accept Bitcoin payments using OpenNode and the Lighting Network.

With the growth of global acceptance of cryptocurrency, many online merchants have adopted crypto payments to remain in the trend.

Image source: Shutterstock

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Nearly 70% of Merchants Believe Crypto Payments will Revolutionize Business Models, Study Shows

by Blockchain News

The appetite for cryptocurrencies in e-commerce continues to gain steam as they offer more convenient and safer payment methods, according to a report by global payments solution provider Checkout.com.

Based on a study entitled “Demystifying Crypto: Shedding light on the adoption of digital currencies for payments in 2022 report,” Checkout.com invited 3,000 merchants and 30,000 consumers spread across 11 countries for this survey.

The study scrutinized sentiments and behaviours pertaining to commercial activities using cryptocurrencies. 

More merchants have an inclination towards cryptocurrencies based on ease of use and the speeds rendered. Per the report:

“Almost 70% of the merchants surveyed believe that the speed with which crypto payments can be made and settled has the potential to revolutionize their business models—with over 80% of merchants with existing crypto-payment options saying it was easier to settle than using fiat currencies.”

Merchants are already feeling the impact of cryptocurrencies based on Visa findings released earlier this year. The payment giant noted that payments associated with its crypto-linked cards skyrocketed to $2.5 billion during its fiscal first quarter of 2022. This represented 70% of the firm’s crypto volume for the entire 2021 fiscal year. 

The growing crypto appeal among younger users

According to Checkout.com findings, crypto was appealing to younger users, given that 40% of consumers aged between 18 and 35 years planned to utilize cryptocurrency payments next year.

This surged from less than 30% recorded last year, signifying a substantial shift in attitude from crypto being solely an investment vehicle to a way of undertaking business regularly.

Jess Houlgrave, Checkout.com’s head of strategy for crypto, stated:

“We believe this is the largest consumer survey of its kind, and the findings present a clear evolution of attitudes towards cryptocurrencies around the world. This is a legitimate transition from the early adoption phase to one that’s more practical, pragmatic and positive overall.”

The report suggested that increased crypto acceptance at consumer levels influenced the way large corporations viewed digital currencies.

More than a third of the respondents, including corporate treasurers and CFOs, showed an interest in having stablecoins on their balance sheets as decentralized finance (DeFi) method for treasury management.  

Image source: Shutterstock

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Upcoming Apple iPhone feature to give merchants a way to accept crypto payments

by Cointelegraph

Apple announced plans to launch Tap to Pay for iPhone, a new feature that effectively turns the smartphone into a point of sale (POS) device for businesses and merchants. So, what’s in it for crypto?

The announcement explains that with Tap to Pay, iPhone-owning merchants receive contactless payments by using their mobile devices as a POS machine thanks to the NFC technology.

According to Apple, the soon-to-be-launched Tap to Pay feature will extend support to “Apple Pay, contactless credit and debit cards and other digital wallets.” It basically means that, unless Apple places a direct barrier for it, customers who are using Coinbase Card, Crypto.com Visa Card or a similar payment card would be able to use their cryptocurrency holdings to make payments via Tap to Pay.

While Apple has announced Stripe, an Irish-American fintech, as the first platform to offer the Tap to Pay feature on iPhone, the company clarified that “additional payment platforms and apps will follow later this year.”

Back in Aug. 2021, major crypto exchange Coinbase integrated with Apple Pay and Google Pay, allowing users to purchase crypto assets on its platform. As Cointelegraph reported, the move allowed the United States-based customers to purchase crypto using bank-issued debit and credit cards via a mainstream payments platform, Apple Pay.

In June 2021, Coinbase launched Coinbase Card, enabling users to spend cryptocurrencies across mainstream avenues:

“Coinbase will automatically convert all cryptocurrency to US Dollars and transfer the funds to your Coinbase Card (less conversion fees) for use in purchases and ATM withdrawals.”

Following suit, crypto exchange Crypto.com launched a similar offering named Crypto.com Visa Card, which can be added to Apple Pay and other major digital wallets. Apple said in the announcement:

“Tap to Pay on iPhone will work with contactless credit and debit cards from leading payment networks, including American Express, Discover, Mastercard and Visa.”

Considering Coinbase’s capability to convert a user’s crypto holdings to fiat in real-time for payments, Apple Pay users will be able to use iPhone’s Tap to Pay feature to make crypto payments across mainstream merchants and businesses.

While Apple Pay will, most probably, not allow direct purchase of goods and services via Bitcoin (BTC), it will convert the user’s crypto holdings to match the dollar amount requested by the merchant’s POS machine to make the purchase.

Let’s also not forget that in Nov. 2021, Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed the personal purchase of cryptocurrencies as “part of a diversified portfolio” while highlighting no immediate plans to accept crypto as a means of payment for Apple products.

Apple intends to roll out the Tap to Pay feature on Apple Stores, iPhone XS and later devices.

Related: Bitcoin Lightning Network goes live on Cash App

Cash App, a mobile payment service developed and owned by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey’s Block, announced compatibility with the Bitcoin Lightning Network for BTC transfers.

With the launch of the new feature, Cash App users can make faster BTC transactions across mainstream businesses. As Cointelegraph reported, the company has made the feature available everywhere in the United States apart from New York.