Bitcoin’s Popularity as a Payment Medium is Dropping
According to BitPay, the share of altcoins and stablecoins in payments for goods and services increased in 2021, while the share of Bitcoin fell.
Bitcoin’s share of total BitPay payment system transactions fell in 2021 from 92% to 65% compared to 2020. This statistic is provided by Bloomberg, citing internal BitPay data.
Customers have become more active in using Ethereum and stablecoins as a means of payment, with turnover rising to 15% and 13%, respectively. In 2021, BitPay made it possible to use DOGE, SHIB and LTC tokens — the total volume of transactions involving them was about 3%.
Experts explain the falling popularity of BTC as tender in 2021 by a number of reasons:
- a 60% increase in the price and the transition to its active accumulation;
- the growing popularity of stablecoin for cross-border payments due to its low volatility;
- the surge in popularity of Dogecoin and Shiba Inu.
In addition, BitPay analysts pointed to the growth of luxury purchases from 9% in 2020 to 31% in 2021. BitPay’s services process approximately 66.000 crypto transactions per month.
