Welcome to the Cryptie, BitPay’s official monthly business newsletter. Here at the Cryptie, it’s our job to keep you in the loop about the latest ups, downs, and plot twists in the ever-evolving landscape of cryptocurrency — and to keep you well informed about what’s happening at BitPay.
In This Issue:
BitPay In the Spotlight
See where BitPay’s been making headlines:
-
BitPay places among the Inc. 5000 list for 2020, demonstrating strong annual growth for three years straight. To learn more, you can read here.
-
BitPay expands its partnership with Coinbase. Coinbase customers can now spend their bitcoin, USD coin, ethereum, XRP, and other blockchain-based payment systems at BitPay-enabled merchants — without having to pay fees or experience any latency. To find out more, you can read here.
-
Stephen Pair, Co-Founder and CEO of BitPay, gave a recent interview to the popular “Leaders in Payments” industry podcast. You can listen to the podcast here.
Other Recent Industry News
Here’s a sampling of the latest global headlines in the world of crypto.
-
In a historic move, Wyoming has approved a US banking license for Kraken Financial, “the first regulated U.S. bank to provide comprehensive deposit-taking, custody and fiduciary services for digital assets.”
-
The hype around “DeFi” isn’t going away anytime soon, reports Neo founder, Da Hongfei. In fact, it’s moving beyond “buzzword stage” and beginning to reshape the industry.
-
Aviatrade Inc., the New Jersey-based luxury aircraft sales company, is now accepting bitcoin as a means of payment for its range of multi-million dollar luxury jets, including its Gulfstream G650, a model favored by the likes of Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk.
-
Akon, the St. Louis-born entertainment legend, is building an entire $4 billion city in Senegal, Africa. Featuring parks, universities, a sports stadium, and schools, the new city will exclusively use the Akoin, a new digital payment system (named in his honor) as its sole currency.
See all of BitPay's Recent News Coverage.
Upcoming BitPay Events
BitPay is happy to announce a new webinar in partnership with Forrester Consulting!
In our new webinar, guest speaker, Sean Owens, Principal Consultant at Forrester, will walk you through our new study, “The Total Economic Impact™️ of Accepting Bitcoin Using BitPay,” and discuss the advantages of doing business while accepting bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
Date: October 15, 2020
Time: 12:00 pm US-EST
You can register for our webinar here
BitPay Bids Welcome to New Businesses
We have thousands of merchants around the globe already using our services, but we’re always pleased to welcome more! From jets to real estate to automotive to municipal governments, say hello to just a few of the new businesses - and industry verticals - in our ever-expanding BitPay family.
City of Williston, ND [Email Billing]
PUROS Cigars [Email Billing]
FAF Automotive [Online Payments]
Republic.co [Online Payments]
Real Estate Bay [Email Billing]
Withum Tax [Email Billing]
Brock Pierce for President [Online Donations]
Venice Jets [Email Billing]
Jo Jorgenson for President [Online Donations]
See our curated list of merchants that accept cryptocurrency with BitPay here.
BitPay Merchant Spotlight of the Month: Turner Sports
Better known to the world as the sports broadcaster for channels such as TBS, TNT, AT&T Sportsnet, TruTV — and for running popular digital sports outlets like NCAA.com, NBA.com, PGATour.com, and PGA.com, Turner Sports is upping its game by expanding into the rapidly growing world of blockchain-based competitive esports.
This month, Turner Sports introduces Blocklete Golf, a game that lets players from around the world compete in virtual golf tournaments with their friends. The stakes aren’t exactly insignificant: $20,000 in cryptocurrency. Quite a princely sum for an online golf tournament, if we may say so. The game even lets you buy, sell, and trade Blocklete Golfers – and track their value in real time.
Key Stats for BitPay and the Industry as a Whole
It’s time we ran the numbers.
With an estimated global market capitalization value of around $267 billion, cryptocurrency is exploding in usage, both in terms of number of customers as well as number of businesses who use it.
Here’s a chart that demonstrates just how worldwide — and how ordinary — the everyday ownership and usage of crypto has become.
Industry Stats
BitPay Stats
A. BitPay Payment Count
BitPay transaction volumes continued to rise in volume over the course of 2020, reaching well over 100k transactions in the month of July.
B. BitPay Payment Count by Cryptocurrency Type
What cryptocurrencies do BitPay users prefer using? While bitcoin (BTC) continues to reign supreme, there are some interesting surprises: For the first time ever, BTC usage has dipped below 89 percent. Meanwhile, bitcoin cash (BCH) spending has jumped well above four percent for the first time.
Impact Marketing
Are you a BitPay-enabled merchant — or are you looking to become one? Do you need better and clearer ways to let your customer base know you accept BitPay-enabled cryptocurrencies?
Our design team at BitPay has UX recommendations for you to include on your websites and other digital properties. Choose from a virtual trove of official BitPay UX templates and branding options and select the ones that work best for your business.
Word of the Month: DeFi
It’s the word on the digital street that seems ubiquitous this September: DeFi, short for decentralized finance, is a term used to describe enforceable, digital financial contracts between two parties that don’t require a third-party intermediary (i.e. a bank, for instance). While the technology driving DeFi may be cutting edge, the concept of DeFi stretches back centuries, to an era when contracts between individuals — without the interposition of banks and lawyers — were the norm and standard.
Product Update: BitPay Send
BitPay Send is set for general release. Payout crypto to anyone, anywhere.
BitPay Send allows organizations of all sizes to pay employees, customers, vendors, contractors and others with cryptocurrency, without having to own or handle digital currency and the inherent exposure to its volatility or risk. BitPay Send is ideal for companies looking for a fast, efficient and secure way to send mass payouts anywhere in the world, on any day of the week, and at any time.
- Make payroll payments
- Satisfy customer cashout requests
- Pay contractors or affiliates
- Issue rewards or rebates
- Settle with marketplace sellers
Contact your account manager for more information on BitPay Send.
Not a customer and interested? Get in touch with a BitPay representative today.
