Cryptocurrencies
From Online Gambling to Pot, Crypto Commerce Takes Off This Year
- Bitcoin still accounted for about 90% of commerce transactions
- Nearly $6 million in transactions done daily: Chainalysis
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After being given up for dead, cryptocurrency-based commerce -- albeit still tiny -- has started growing again.
The amount of digital money sent to 16 merchant service providers such as BitPay rose 65% between January and July, according to data researcher Chainalysis. The price of Bitcoin, which accounted for 89% of all such transactions, had more than doubled over the seven months, to about $10,000. Typically, steep run-ups in the cryptocurrency’s price push people to spend less, and instead to hold or to speculate.