Last year, Bitcoin’s use at merchants that use BitPay dropped to about 65% of processed payments, down from 92% in 2020, the company told Bloomberg. Ether purchases accounted for 15% of the total, stablecoins were 13% and new coins added to BitPay in 2021 -- Dogecoin, Shiba Inu and Litecoin -- accounted for 3%.
When they did spend their crypto, many bought luxury good like jewelry and watches, cars, boats -- and even gold, which Bitcoin -- touted as digital gold -- is supposed to replace, according to BitPay. The Atlanta-based private company’s transaction volumes related to luxury goods surged 31% last year from 9% in 2020, said Chief Executive Officer Stephen Pair. The company’s overall 2021 payment volumes rose 57% year over year.
It can also serve as an industry barometer. At least so far, the recent downturn hasn’t affected crypto investors’ spending habits as much as in the crypto winter of 2018, Pair said. While luxury spending has been hit, the overall declines have been much smaller, he said -- perhaps a sign of confidence that the current downturn could be short-lived, or that crypto has a much broader base of users.
For its part, BitPay is showing signs of confidence as well. It just appointed Jim Lester its first-ever chief operating officer to expand the business. Lester previously headed startup ThingTech, and was also senior vice president of product management, strategy and marketing at Fiserv Inc.’s electronic billing and payments division.
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