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12/02/2021

It Is Not Interested In Adding Bitcoin As A Payment Method, Says Fintech Giant Adyen




It Is Not Interested In Adding Bitcoin As A Payment Method, Says Fintech Giant Adyen
Claims of some experts and analysts that bitcoin can turn out to be a mainstream form of payment has not convinced Adyen - the European fintech firm that processes payments for large companies such as Facebook, Netflix and Uber.
 
Bitcoin and other crypto currencies are low on attractiveness as a mode of financial transactions because of the high volatility in these digital currencies, said Pieter van der Does, the CEO and co-founder of the firm. Adyen is not at all interested to include any crypto currency as a mode of payment, he added.
 
“Bitcoin is more of an investment asset than a payment method,” Van der Does said in an interview on Wednesday.
 
“We are interested in payment methods which are being used,” he added. “I am wondering if the huge movement in the value of bitcoin is helping it as a payment method.”
 
An investment of $1.5 billion investment in bitcoin has been made by Tesla, the United States based electric car maker said earlier this week which ignited speculations of other such companies also doing the same. Tesla would soon begin to accept bitcoin as a mode of payment for its cars from customers, said the company which is led by the billionaire CEO Elon Musk in in a regulatory filing on Monday.
 
Providing support to some of the crypto currencies on its network later this year is also being planned by the payments giant Mastercard, the company said on Wednesday.
 
However there are no requests or demands from the merchants that Adyen to add facilities of payment in crypto currencies on its platform, said Van der Does when asked about whether the company could follow the path of Mastercard.
 
“It might not actually be helping cryptocurrencies if they are more like investment assets than a currency,” he said. “That makes it less interesting for a merchant — to have potential (as a means of payment), you need a stable currency,” Van der Does said.
 
While Adyen once did allow the use of bitcoin as a payment method, that practice has been stopped by it a long time ago and the firm now no longer supports any transaction in any crypto currency.
 
Huge volatility in their value has been a part of crypto currencies ever since they were created. There have been many boom and bust cycles for bitcoin itself, the largest crypto currency of the world. The latest was in 2017 when the company saw a rally towards $2,000 and then its value collapsed by more than 80 per cent within a year.
 
Of late however, there has been a very strong rebound in bitcoin as the crypto currency’s value has surged past the $40,000 mark and hit record highs on Tesla’s announcement of use of it as a mode of payment.
 
A growth in institutional investment in bitcoin has benefitted proponents of the crypto currency. According to the bulls, bitcoin has become a mean for expansion of their portfolios for large investors as they look upon the currency as a potential store of value just like gold. However skeptics claim that the bitcoin value is one of the biggest bubbles in the history of the stock market. 
 
(Source:www.cnbc.com)

Christopher J. Mitchell

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