85% of Big Retailers Accept Cryptocurrency as a Form of Payment

Merchants and consumers have had enough experience with cryptocurrencies that they understand the advantages they offer as a payment method. Forty-six percent of merchants currently accept cryptocurrency as a form of payment, according to “Paying with Cryptocurrency,” a PYMNTS and BitPay collaboration based on a survey of 2,334 consumers and 202 merchants with annual online sales of at least $250 million. Big retailers are especially likely to accept crypto as a form of payment, as 85% of businesses with more than $1 billion in annual online sales say they accept some form of crypto-enabled payment method. Among smaller merchants — those with $250 million to $1 billion in annual online sales — just 23% accept crypto for purchases. The type of crypto payment that most merchants accept for in-store purchases is non-crypto-native digital wallets that enable crypto transactions, such as PayPal or Venmo. Ninety-four percent of customers are able to use cryptocurrency to pay for in-store purchases in that way. The other types of crypto payments that merchants accept for in-store purchases include cryptocurrency wallets, gift cards purchased from websites that accept cryptocurrency and cryptocurrency debit or prepaid cards. These are accepted by 46%, 4% and 2%, respectively, of merchants for in-store purchases. Non-crypto-native digital wallets are the type of crypto payment offered by most merchants for online purchases, too, with 94% of customers being able to use those to pay for online purchases. The shares of merchants that enable customers to use cryptocurrency to pay for online purchases in other ways include 13% offering cryptocurrency wallets, 2% offering gift cards purchased from websites that accept cryptocurrency and 2% offering cryptocurrency debit or prepaid cards. Seventy percent of merchants plan to adopt more crypto innovations in the next 12 months. Among the merchants that already accept cryptocurrency, 96% plan to make innovations related to accepting cryptocurrency within the next 12 months. Among the merchants that do not accept crypto, 42% plan to do so.