Why Some Merchants Accept Bitcoin Despite the Risks|PaymentsSource
Regulation November 29, 2013 Comments Off on Why Some Merchants Accept Bitcoin Despite the Risks|PaymentsSource 34The company uses BitPay, a bitcoin payment processor. For a fee around 1%, BitPay and other processors will take the currency risk for their clients, immediately converting bitcoins received from shoppers into dollars at a guaranteed exchange rate. Last year, BitPay announced it had signed on 1,000 online merchants to its platform.
BitPay also works with Gyft, which sells virtual gift cards for large merchants such as American Eagle, Nike and Burger King. Consumers who wish to use bitcoins at these merchants can now indirectly do so by purchasing a virtual Gyft card, but the mega-merchants don’t take bitcoins themselves.
“Until bitcoin gets to where it’s extremely stable and a currency with very low volatility, retailers don’t have the margins to price in bitcoin,” says Vinny Lingham, CEO of Gyft.
Partnerships with intermediary companies that do business with large retailers, like BitPay’s arrangement with Gyft, are one way to get more merchants comfortable with bitcoins.
via Why Some Merchants Accept Bitcoin Despite the Risks|PaymentsSource.
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