Highlights of the 2022 BitPay Cryptocurrency Payment Report: Buyer Demographics, Merchant Status...

Payment Data Platform PYMNTS and Payment Service Provider BitPay recently released a joint report — Paying With Cryptocurrency. This report surveyed 2,334 consumers to understand their usage of cryptocurrencies, and compiled the experiences of merchants with over $250 million in annual sales who accept cryptocurrencies as a payment method.

(This article summarizes the key points of the report; please refer to the original for any questions.)

Part One: What Types of Consumers Like Cryptocurrency

According to the report, among consumers who held cryptocurrencies in the past year, 55% did so for investment purposes. The highest proportion was among Generation X (born 1964-1980), at about 57.5%; the lowest was among Generation Z (born late 1990s to early 2010s), at about 52.7%. Transaction needs were the second main reason, accounting for approximately 30%.

Additionally, the higher the income group, the greater the interest in investing in cryptocurrencies. Among consumers with annual incomes of $50k to $100k and over $100k, 27% held cryptocurrencies in the past year. In contrast, only 15% of those earning less than $50k did so.

Among these respondents, the most commonly held cryptocurrency was BTC, with about 12% of consumers holding it, followed by ETH at 6.8%. Interestingly, although ETH ranks second in holding proportion, it is not the second most recognized currency. Besides BTC, the most widely known cryptocurrencies are Dogecoin (DOGE), then Bitcoin Cash (BCH), followed by ETH.

Part Two: Overview of Merchant Acceptance of Cryptocurrency Payments

According to the report, larger merchants are more likely to accept cryptocurrencies. Among companies with annual revenues over $1 billion, 85% accept crypto payments.

However, whether in physical stores or online shops, the proportion paying with native crypto wallets like Coinbase Wallet or Crypto.com is low, only 6.5%. The most mainstream method remains using wallets that accept crypto assets, such as PayPal or Venmo.

Among these merchants, about 77.4% believe that the cost of crypto payments is lower compared to other payment methods.

While crypto payments offer many benefits, they still have drawbacks compared to traditional payment systems. The main issue faced by these merchants is the volatility of crypto payments, followed by a lack of transparency (possibly due to the anonymous nature). Additionally, regulatory uncertainty and difficulty in tracking payments are also commonly considered challenging issues.

Finally, among companies that do not accept crypto payments, about 42% expect to do so within the next 12 months. The main reasons motivating them are to attract new customers and to eliminate intermediaries in the transaction process. Increasing transparency and improving cross-border payment experiences, often emphasized by the crypto community, are not the primary reasons.

However, approximately 68% of merchants cited technical issues encountered when accepting crypto wallet payments as a significant reason for deciding not to accept crypto payments.