Merchants Love Bitcoin, and BitPay has 100 Million Reasons to Prove it

BitPay has reached yet another all-important milestone, having processed more than $100m bitcoin transactions this year.

The company, which helps merchants to accept payment in digital currency, has brought bitcoin to a number of popular retailers, such as Gyft and Shopify, as well as bitcoin mining equipment producer KNC Miner and blog platform Wordpress.

Stephanie Wargo, BitPay's VP of marketing, said: "We are thrilled to have reached this milestone in 2013, and we expect this growth continue in 2014. We are adding hundreds of merchants every day as they see the benefits to accepting bitcoins for the purchase of goods and services."

She added:

"Bitcoin is continuing to gain acceptance throughout the world, and BitPay is proud to be leading the movement. We expect to continue to see bitcoin growth in North America and Europe, but are also seeing it in Asia-Pacific and South America."

Boosting sales

Electronics store Adafruit started accepting bitcoin, via BitPay, towards the end of November and has already witnessed a surge in sales.

"This year, the 2013 holiday season was Adafruit's biggest ever," said Limor Fried, founder and engineer with Adafruit, adding:

"We are delighted to offer bitcoin payments via BitPay to our community and customers. It was fast and easy, hundreds of orders and happy customers getting educational electronics, using bitcoin!"

Adafruit wasn't BitPay's only customer enjoying a boost in sales over the Thanksgiving period. BitPay revealed recently it had witnessed a 6,260% increase in transactions on Black Friday 2013, compared with the same day of last year.

BitPay CEO Tony Gallippi said: “[The bitcoin economy] is soaring … as merchants are seeing tremendous value in accepting bitcoin payments.”

The growth of BitPay

Gallippi co-founded BitPay, which now has over 15,000 merchants in 200 countries on its books, back in 2011 with now-CTO Stephen Pair.

The company received £2m in funding in May from venture firm Founder’s Fund, which has also invested in tech giants like Facebook and Spotify.

Gallippi spoke during last month's Senate hearings on virtual currency in Washington DC. He was the only person actually operating a virtual currency business to testify at the hearing after Chris Larsen, CEO of the Ripple Foundation, was unable to attend.

He likened bitcoin as it is now to the Internet in the early 1990s, saying bitcoin should be offered similar protection by Congress to enable it to evolve, develop and enrich people's lives in the same way.

"If we look 10-­20 years in the future, we will see many companies built upon bitcoin-­related technology. We want those companies to be based in America, creating jobs in America, and building a revenue base and tax base in America," he said, suggesting that the government should not pigeonhole or over-regulate bitcoin.

It is not yet clear whether or not the US government will decide to create regulation for bitcoin. In the meantime, BitPay is continuing to expand and develop the features it offers. It recently launched its directory of merchants, which shows some of the retailers that are now accepting bitcoin across the world.

Disclaimer: CoinDesk founder Shakil Khan is an investor in BitPay.

Florist image via Shutterstock.