BitPay 2022 Cryptocurrency Payment Report: Higher Salaries Lead to More Crypto Purchases, Expanding Customer Base Key Adoption Driver

The payment data platform PYMNTS and payment service provider BitPay recently released a joint report titled "Paying With Cryptocurrency." This report surveyed 2,334 consumers to understand their usage of cryptocurrency, as well as 202 merchants with annual sales exceeding $250 million, documenting their experiences accepting cryptocurrency as a form of payment.

This article summarizes the key points of the report. For more information, please refer to the original document.

Part 1: What Type of Consumers Like Cryptocurrency

According to the report, 55% of consumers who have held cryptocurrency in the past year did so for investment purposes. Among them, the highest proportion came from the Generation X born between 1964 and 1980, at around 57.5%; while the lowest was from Generation Z born from the late 1990s to the early 2010s, at around 52.7%. The second main reason was for trading purposes, accounting for about 30% overall.

Furthermore, the higher the income bracket, the more interest there is in investing in cryptocurrency. Among consumers with annual incomes of "50,000 to 100,000 US dollars" and "over 100,000 US dollars," 27% had held cryptocurrency in the past year. In contrast, only 15% of those with incomes "less than 50,000 US dollars" had done so.

Among the respondents, the highest proportion held Bitcoin (BTC), with approximately 12% of consumers holding it, followed by Ethereum (ETH) at 6.8%. Interestingly, although ETH ranked second in terms of holding proportion, it was not the second most recognized cryptocurrency. Apart from BTC, the most well-known cryptocurrency was actually Dogecoin (DOGE), followed by Bitcoin Cash (BCH), and then ETH.

Part 2: Overview of Businesses Accepting Crypto Payments

According to the report, larger businesses show a higher acceptance rate of cryptocurrency. Among enterprises with annual incomes exceeding 1 billion US dollars, 85% accept crypto payments.

However, whether in physical stores or online shops, the proportion of payments made using native crypto wallets like Coinbase or Crypto.com is low, at only 6.5%. The most mainstream method remains using wallets that accept crypto assets such as Paypal or Venmo for payments.

Among these businesses, it is generally believed that the cost of crypto payments is lower compared to other payment methods, with approximately 77.4% in agreement.

While crypto payments offer many benefits, they still have drawbacks compared to traditional payment systems. According to statistics, the main issues encountered by these businesses are the volatility of crypto payments, followed by lack of transparency possibly due to the anonymous nature. Additionally, regulatory uncertainty and difficulty in tracking payments are also commonly seen as challenging issues.

Among businesses that do not accept crypto payments, around 42% of them plan to start accepting them within the next 12 months. The primary reasons driving them to accept are acquiring new customers and eliminating intermediaries in transactions. The crypto community's emphasized benefits of increased transparency and enhanced cross-border payment experiences are not the main reasons.

However, about 68% of businesses stated that technical issues encountered when accepting payments from crypto wallets are a significant reason for their decision not to accept crypto payments.