25% of Global Merchants Will Adopt Crypto Payments
It’s the beginning of 2022 and the idea of crypto is still in the early adopter's phase for individuals, but not widely accepted by most businesses as a form of payment. You’ve might’ve only heard of big brands like Tesla, AMC, AT&T, and the Dallas Mavericks accepting cryptocurrencies. More big brands are adopting this change, but what about small business owners? Would accepting cryptocurrencies be a game-changer for them?
Visa recently released a survey where the company surveyed 2,250 small business owners across 9 countries; these countries included the United States, Singapore, Brazil, and Canada. With almost 25% of the responses being in favor of accepting cryptocurrencies as a form of payment. In contrast, 13% of consumers in those 9 countries expect retailers to begin accepting cryptocurrencies in the coming year and beyond. Outside of North America, countries like Brazil, Singapore, and United Arab Emirates have more than 30% of small business owners willing to accept cryptocurrencies for their goods and services.
At a quick glance at the number of people surveyed and the percentage of favor accepting cryptocurrencies, you may think it’s not much. Nevertheless, this is a sign the global economy is changing and we must be prepared for it. If you are wondering why small business owners are not jumping on the crypto train yet, let’s take a closer look from their perspective.
A strong reason for the majority of small business owners being reluctant to accept cryptocurrencies as a form of payment is due to the market’s volatility and ambiguous laws and regulations in many countries. We can all agree that the market can be unstable and no one can accurately predict where it’s going. Here is a worst-case scenario for a small business owner. A local clothing print shop accepts Bitcoin for all their orders, and Bitcoin is at a value of $55,000. But then the coin drops to $48,000 and now that small business owner feels they’ve lost money. This business owner is now worried that their Bitcoin value will not be enough to sustain their business. This can be a major problem for small business owners who can’t afford this type of instability. It’s this fear that can steer many businesses and individuals away from using cryptocurrencies. Despite this challenge, you have brands like AMC who are not holding their cryptocurrencies and converting them to Fiat money.
Paypal recently introduced a new cryptocurrency checkout solution that would allow you to instantly convert your cryptocurrency to US Dollars. More payment companies will identify this gap and work towards creating a long-term solution for it. Companies that are successful are built on solving real-world problems, and the companies that tackle this problem will have a huge impact on the adoption of retailers and small business owners accepting cryptocurrencies for payment.
As this survey performed by Visa still hints, it’s still too early before we begin making purchases with crypto as a norm. Nevertheless, the most powerful action you can take is to get informed of Web 3 and how to world is adapting to it. As the global economy progresses to Web 3, we must decide if we want to be part of this progression or resist it.
