BitPay says Bitcoin use by its merchants fell to ~65% of crypto payments, down from 92% in 2020, as Ether purchases rose to 15% and stablecoins grew to 13%
Context & Ripple Effects
BitPay’s merchant data extends an earlier weakening in Bitcoin’s role at crypto processing services: Chainalysis had already recorded a sharp decline in Bitcoin received by major processors in 2018. The current mix shows that the change is no longer only about lower payment activity, but about which assets customers choose.
The merchant shift also follows Bitcoin’s declining share of overall crypto market value and the rise of Ethereum activity around NFTs and DeFi. BitPay is a useful payment-side measure of that broader diversification because it tracks assets used at checkout rather than held or traded.
First-order effects
- BitPay merchants now receive a materially more diversified set of crypto payments, with Ether and stablecoins taking share from Bitcoin.
- Bitcoin’s role in BitPay’s merchant network shifts from near-default payment asset to the largest component of a multi-asset payment mix.
Second-order effects
- Merchants using BitPay have a stronger reason to accommodate Ether and stablecoin settlement alongside Bitcoin, making broad asset support a more important feature for crypto payment providers.
- Ether and stablecoins gain payment-use visibility that is distinct from their market-value growth, while Bitcoin’s payment-network position becomes less representative of crypto demand overall.
Third-order effects
- If merchant payment mixes continue to diversify, crypto-payment infrastructure will be organized around routing and settling multiple assets rather than around Bitcoin acceptance alone.
- The pattern points to a separation between Bitcoin’s role as a leading crypto asset and the assets selected for transaction-oriented use, with stablecoins and programmable networks competing for the latter role.
The trend: Crypto payments are moving from Bitcoin-centric acceptance toward multi-asset checkout, led by Ether and stablecoins gaining merchant use.