Indeed, CoinGate, a cryptocurrency payment processor, discovered in its research report published on January 4 that, despite the “crypto winter,” the use of cryptocurrencies for online transactions in 2022 is increasing. The research indicates that in 2022, merchants using CoinGate have received 927,294 crypto payments, which is around 2.7 times higher than the annual average and represents a 63% increase from 2021. The figure is equivalent to CoinGate processing one paid cryptocurrency order every 34 seconds.

According to the research findings, Bitcoin (BTC) was responsible for over half, or 48%, of all transactions in the year 2022. Notably, it is 7.6% lower than it was in 2021, which suggests that altcoin payments have marginally decreased Bitcoin’s dominance in payments despite the rising number of transactions. In 2022, USDT was the second most popular cryptocurrency that was used for shopping, with a predominance of 14.8%. This was followed by Ethereum (10.9%), Litecoin (9.6%), and TRON (5.8%). Despite the general slump in the market, CoinGate saw a 48% growth in the number of newly registered merchants in 2022 compared to 2021. This includes industry giants like NordVPN to the list of businesses willing to accept cryptocurrency payments. 

Retailers adopting crypto payments

Every year, the most popular argument given by retailers for accepting cryptocurrency payments is the same: improved access to services for consumers who are unbanked or concerned about their privacy, which eventually results in increased sales. Since modern payment processors reduce the issue of crypto price fluctuation by permitting quick settlements to fiat currencies, there are few reasons why merchants seeking creative methods to revitalize their companies should not consider implementing crypto payments. Notably, back in December, in an exclusive interview with Finbold, Justas Paulius, the CEO of CoinGate, revealed that the frequency of paying with cryptocurrency was unmoved by crypto winter, with people not reducing the frequency of their purchases but shifting “a bit from free-float coins to stablecoins.”