Cryptocurrencies Gain Traction in E-Commerce
Although the markets are currently undergoing a major correction, the number of retailers willing to accept cryptocurrency payments continues to increase, with the volume of online cryptocurrency purchases growing steadily in the e-commerce sector.
In fact, CoinGate, a cryptocurrency payment processor, found in a report published on January 4 that despite the “crypto winter,” the use of cryptocurrencies for online transactions is on the rise in 2022.
According to the study, merchants using CoinGate received 927,294 crypto payments in 2022, about 2.7x the annual average and a 63% increase from 2021. The figure is equivalent to CoinGate processing one paid cryptocurrency order every 34 seconds.
Bitcoin leads the rankings
Bitcoin (BTC) is responsible for more than half, or 48%, of all transactions in 2022, according to the survey results. This is only 7.6% lower than in 2021, suggesting that altcoin payments have marginally reduced Bitcoin’s dominance in payments despite the growing number of transactions.
In 2022, USDT was the second most popular cryptocurrency that was used for shopping, with a dominant share of 14.8%. It was followed by Ethereum (10.9%), Litecoin (9.6%) and Tron (5.8%).
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Despite the overall market downturn, CoinGate saw a 48% increase in the number of newly registered merchants in 2022 compared to 2021. This includes industry giants like NordVPN to the list of businesses willing to accept cryptocurrency payments.
Retailers accepting crypto payments
Every year, the most popular argument put forward by retailers for accepting cryptocurrency payments is the same: improved access to services for consumers who are unbanked or worried about their privacy, ultimately leading to increased sales.
Since modern payment processors reduce the problem of fluctuating cryptocurrency prices by allowing for quick payments with fiat currencies, there aren’t that many reasons why merchants looking for creative methods to revitalize their companies should not consider implementing crypto payments.
Alexander Stefanov
Reporter at CoinsPress
Alex is Editor-in-Chief of Coinspress and co-founder of Millennial Media Group, with nearly a decade of experience covering financial markets - crypto first, then everything else. It started in 2016 with Bitcoin. Like most people at the time, he didn't fully understand it - so he kept digging. Blockchain, tokenomics, the projects, the cycles. That curiosity never stopped, and eventually pulled him into traditional markets too: equities, commodities, macro. Not because he left crypto behind, but because you can't properly understand one without the other. What drives him is straightforward: he wants to know why something is happening, not just that it's happening. Most market coverage stops at the headline - price up, price down, here's a chart. Alex finds that kind of reporting actively unhelpful. If you walk away from an article without understanding the mechanism behind the move, what did you actually learn? He holds a degree in Tourism from New Bulgarian University - not the most obvious path into financial markets, but markets have a way of pulling in people who are simply too curious to stay out. He has authored over 200 in-depth analyses and more than 10,000 articles across crypto and traditional finance. He still thinks every day in markets teaches him something new. That's probably why he hasn't stopped.
