Statistics don’t lie
Statistics from Chainalysis show that the number of transactions through 16 known payment providers, such as BitPay, increased 65% from January to July.
89% of transactions went through Bitcoin, which doubled in price to $ 10,000 during the measurement period. The interesting thing is that generally, trading over the internet with Bitcoin has fallen as a result of a sharp rise in prices. This is because many want to own Bitcoin and speculate on a further upturn, but this time it was the opposite.
The fact that customers this year use cryptocurrency more often to trade goods online, is in contrast to last year when such transactions declined.
Senior economist Kim Grayer of New York-based Chainalysis, tells Bloomberg that the increase in transactions is due to increased confidence in cryptocurrency in general.
“There is still huge growth in the use of Bitcoin, but if you look at stack coins like Tether, you will see that growth has come first and foremost.”
Stable currencies
Tether is a stablecoin that is pegged against the US dollar and will not fluctuate in price like other cryptocurrencies. This is without a firm peg against fiat currency. In the first seven months of this year, the use of Tether for e-commerce went from 0 to 9% of the total trading volume.
The trend may continue going up, as there are large projects aimed at introducing cryptocurrency on traditional retail trade in the coming year. Together with the world’s largest exchange operator Intercontinental Exchange, Starbucks is a co-owner of the Bakkt crypto exchange. The coffee chain says they will roll out a payment solution aimed at loyal coffee drinkers as early as 2020.