Widespread acceptance of crypto payment
A survey conducted by Deloitte titled “Merchants getting ready for crypto” found that nearly 75 percent of U.S. retailers plan to accept payments via cryptocurrencies or stablecoins within the next two years. The survey polled about 2,000 executives from diverse subsectors of the retail industry. The reason for the positive attitude toward cryptocurrencies can be found in the hope of tapping into new customer strata. An increase in customer satisfaction is also among the reasons for the shift toward crypto acceptance. In this context, it is interesting to note that both cryptocurrencies and stablecoins are to be accepted – the former in particular are characterized by their volatility, which is likely to make pricing more difficult in terms of price fluctuations.
Increased interest in crypto payments
In addition to the basic willingness, the assessment of the future of payment methods stands out: 83 percent of retailers assume that consumers will be increasingly interested in digital currencies in the next year. Against this backdrop, it is understandable that half of retailers have already invested more than $1 million in enabling digital payments, which is proving challenging in operational terms: nearly 90 percent of retailers surveyed are struggling to make their existing financial infrastructure compatible with different digital currencies. Security concerns and the aforementioned volatility are additional hurdles to overcome alongside the lack of legal regulation.
Operational processing
When it comes to putting cybercurrency payments into practice, retailers have two options: After making the payment, they can either exchange the cryptos directly into fiat money or – risk variant 2 – hold the cryptocurrencies and hope for price increases. The second variant may sound tempting, but it carries risks of price losses. The naturally low trading margins in some sub-industries are also likely to make the price gain variant impossible.
This is also shown by the survey results: Just over 50 percent of retailers surveyed plan to convert cryptocurrencies directly into cash, and only a minority would take the risky route. Conversion to fiat money is also more attractive to many businesses because it is quicker to implement, is beneficial to cash flow, and involves much lower acquisition costs, which correlates with the aforementioned fear of excessive conversion costs.
Opportunity for cryptos?
A well-known argument from crypto opponents is the lack of practicality. With an acceptance of crypto payments in the economic cycle, this argument is invalidated and at the same time a boost in attractiveness is given. If you can pay with it, cryptocurrency is far more tangible for many people than it has been in the past. This, in turn, is likely to fuel demand and thus prices, which ultimately benefits the entire crypto sector.