Crypto Payment Processor BitPay Sees More Use in Stablecoins than Layer-2 Solutions

Bill Zielke, BitPay’s Chief Marketing Officer, revealed on Thursday this week that the company was not planning to integrate the layer 2 Bitcoin channels. Bill explains that Bitcoin transactions dominate the customers’ preference hence no rush to switch despite the fees reaching highs of $7 after a 256% spike earlier in the month.

The company switched from being a Bitcoin-only payment service, where merchants can accept crypto and convert it directly into fiat currency options including the dollar, euro, and British pound. Users can currently pay across selected merchant stores in North America and Europe using multiple cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin Cash (BCH), XRP, Ethereum (ETH), and stable coins including Binance dollar (BUSD) this April.

According to Zielke, Bitcoin currently holds over 95% of all the transactions on the platform with BCH coming in second with about 2% of the total volume transacted. Despite the skyrocketing Bitcoin fees since the halving, the BitPay’s CMO says the company will not be switching to Lightning Network and other Layer 2 solutions due to unsystematic risks they pose. He said,

“Lightning Network and the Liquid sidechain are not in our current plans or roadmap but we are always evaluating new and innovative alternatives and collecting customer input on use cases, importance, and priority.”

The current lockdown state across countries due to the COVID-19 virus is seeing more people spend time online shopping and BitPay aims to increase the use of crypto in day to day spending. Stablecoins have witnessed impressive growth in the first half of 2020 and the lack of volatility on these assets makes them ideal for spending.

Bill said the company is focusing on the stablecoin market following the addition of several stablecoins on the platform this year including PAX, BUSD, USDC, and GUSD.

Source: bitcoinexchangeguide.com