Mystery to Opportunity: The Future of Crypto Payments

Merchant acceptance of crypto payments is still nascent today. While growing in size, it represents only a tiny fraction of the $10 trillion global eCommerce market. To date, most crypto payment volumes are driven by merchants in specific verticals such as online gaming, entertainment, and digital services. Mainstream merchants, meanwhile, have not yet accepted cryptocurrencies as a viable alternative. Lack of regulatory clarity, consumer purchase experience friction, and privacy and security concerns remain roadblocks to mainstream merchant acceptance.

However, we are now at a point of market inflection. Several forces of disruption and market initiatives have come to the forefront. This helps create the perfect for accelerated acceptance and usage of cryptocurrencies in C2B commerce. Regulators globally are intensifying their scrutiny of crypto which we expect to give way to greater regulatory clarity. Accelerating evangelism from key payments ecosystem stakeholders and influencers is driving awareness and interest. 

Technological innovations such as non-fungible tokens (NFTs), stablecoins, and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) expand the horizon of possibilities for merchants and consumers. While hurdles and uncertainties remain as to when and how cryptocurrencies will go mainstream, we expect crypto payments to emerge as a viable and widely-used medium of exchange in digital commerce in the next several years.

This white paper examines the history, current state, and future expectations for the evolution of crypto payments.