“Pay us in crypto,” one in four small businesses say

Original author: Oluwapelumi Adejumo

A recent survey by Visa Inc has revealed the willingness of small businesses across nine countries to accept digital assets like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and others as a means of payment for their goods and services.

One in four small businesses is open to accepting crypto

The survey, which had over 2000 business owners in countries like the United States, Singapore, Brazil, and others, showed that crypto payments options would rise massively this year.

Reuters revealed that a closer look at the numbers would show that businesses in Hong Kong, Singapore, Brazil, and UAE, were willing to introduce crypto payment options.

Per Reuters, at least 30% of small businesses in all countries mentioned above expressed their willingness to accept crypto. This is despite the varying level of government regulation being imposed on the industry in these countries.

For the United States and Canada, businesses are more reluctant to open their doors for crypto. In the US, for example, 19% of small businesses want to receive crypto payments, while less than 10% of small businesses in Canada are willing to accept digital assets.

Why small businesses might be reluctant to accept crypto

While crypto undeniably went mainstream in 2021, businesses are still unwilling to adopt it as a payment option due to the volatile nature of assets in the space.

The flagship digital asset, Bitcoin, has shed over 35% of the gains it made since reaching as high as $68,789 in November last year. Just recently, the asset traded below the $40k mark for the first time in three months.

This level of historic volatility hampers the adoption of the asset by businesses worldwide.

Apart from this, Chainalysis noted that another impediment to crypto adoption is its use by criminals.

According to the report, the “criminal abuse of cryptocurrency creates huge impediments for continued adoption, (and) heightens the likelihood of restrictions being imposed by governments….”

Some businesses already accepting crypto payments

Though crypto payment options have not totally gone mainstream, some businesses already accept payment for their products and services through crypto. Some of them are mentioned below:

PayPal: PayPal users in the United States can use their crypto holdings to pay for goods and services with either Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, or Bitcoin Cash. This option is available to the over 30 million merchants accepting PayPal.
AMC Theater: The largest movie theater chain in the United States began accepting crypto payments last year. Moviegoers can pay for their tickets with Bitcoin, Ether, and others. Notably, the movie house would also be supporting payments using the popular meme coins Dogecoin and Shiba Inu.
El Salvador: El Salvador is not a business. However, the Central American country has adopted Bitcoin as a legal tender which means all businesses operating within the country now have to accept the asset whenever a customer wants to pay for a good or service.