Shopify merchants can now enable Crypto.com Pay on their online storefronts, with customers able to make purchases with cryptocurrencies.
Crypto.com said it will waive the 0.5% settlement fee on transactions for the first month of all merchants who integrate.
“Providing more customers and merchants the ability to engage in commerce using cryptocurrencies is a priority for Crypto.com,” said Kris Marszalek, its co-founder and CEO.
“We are incredibly excited to integrate into Shopify, and to bring this capability to even more customers and merchants around the world.”
Crypto.com Pay features zero transaction fees and only 0.5% settlement fees, which it says is an 80% saving on fees when compared to typical payment processors.
The off-chain service is real-time and accessible to all global Crypto.com app users. It allows them to pay using more than 20 cryptocurrencies including BTC, ETH, CRO, SHIB, DOGE and APE.
Customers can also earn crypto-cashback Pay Rewards when they check out with the Cronos token (CRO), which can be up to 10% during the promotion periods.
Since launching in 2018, Crypto.com Pay has helped merchants such as TIME Magazine, Ledger, and Coinzilla, as well as platforms such as WooCommerce and Oveit, tap into the global cryptocurrency economy and accept cryptocurrencies on their websites.
Crypto.com itself serves more than 50 million customers with over 5,000 people in offices across the Americas, Europe and Asia.
Blockchain.com CEO expects more market ‘destruction’
The CEO of Blockchain.com expects more “creative destruction” of the crypto market in the coming weeks and months.
Peter Smith told CNBC that the process of exposing weak protocols, assets and investors helps to consolidate the crypto economy – and there could be more following the death spiral of Terra’s LUNA coin and sister stablecoin UST.
“There are a lot of companies and protocols and assets where we do need the process of creative destruction to come through the market,” he said.
“I would expect in the next few weeks after this really dramatic pulldown in the market, some of the risks start to be exposed through the economy.”
Companies, trading firms and funds that haven’t been managing their risks appropriately could be shut down, he added.
“It is going to take a few weeks, if not months, to see the ripple effect of a really brutal two or three weeks for crypto,” he added.
Cryptocurrency shorts
Canadian venture capital firm Round13 has launched a dedicated fund to invest in the emerging blockchain and digital asset market. The new crypto native fund has raised $70m of an initial target of $100m.
The latest data from Glassnode suggests that USDC may be becoming the crypto market’s preferred stablecoin over USDT.
Panama’s President Laurentino Cortizo has refused to sign the country’s crypto legalisation bill until it includes measures that prevent money laundering in the sector.
The first quarter of 2022 saw 20 million first-time crypto apps installed in Europe, according to a BanklessTimes.com analysis. This is down from the Q4 2021 figures of 28m. Binance and Crypto.com remain the most popular cryptocurrency apps in Europe, with an average of 70,000+ total downloads each day.
Crypto is the most important financial product for 41% of first-time UK investors. Only South Africa, India, Japan, Australia and Ireland had more interest in crypto than the UK, according to the research from BrokerChooser.
Crypto prices
The overall market cap of the more than 19,500 coins is at $1.28 trillion at the time of writing (7am UK), a 3.3% increase in the last 24 hours. The market volatility has impacted Crypto CFDs trading volume, according to Justin Grossbard of CompareForexBrokers.com
Market leader Bitcoin – the original cryptocurrency created by the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto – added 4% to around $30,150. BTC is down 1% in a week.
Ethereum, the second most valuable crypto coin – created as a decentralised network for smart contracts on the blockchain – added 4% to around $2,025. ETH is 4% down over the course of a week.
Binance Coin is a cryptocurrency created by popular crypto exchange Binance to assist its aim in becoming the infrastructure services provider for the entire blockchain ecosystem. Its BNB token gained 4% to $309, leaving it 1% up over seven days.
The XRP token of Ripple, a payment settlement asset exchange and remittance system, acts as a bridge for transfers between other currencies. XRP rocketed 8% to 43 cents, but is 4% down over seven days.
Cardano is an open source network facilitating dApps which considers itself to be an updated version of Ethereum. Its ADA token, designed to allow owners to participate in the operation of the network, gained 5% to 53 cents. It is 9% down over the course of a week.
Solana is a blockchain built to make decentralised finance accessible on a larger scale – and capable of processing 50,000 transactions per second. Its SOL token rose 2% to above $51 yet is down 3% compared with a week ago.
Meme coin DOGE was created as a satire on the hype surrounding cryptocurrencies but is now a major player in the space. DOGE grew 3% to 8.6c, leaving it 7% down in a week.
Polkadot was founded by the Swiss-based Web3 Foundation as an open-source project to develop a decentralised web. Its DOT token, which aims to securely connect blockchains, added 5% to $10 and is 1% higher than its price a week ago.
Avalanche is a lightning-quick verifiable platform for institutions, enterprises and governments. Its AVAX token rose 3% to $29.82 and is 15% down in a week.
To see how the valuations of the main coins have changed in recent times – and for round-ups of recent cryptocurrency news developments – click here.
For valuations of the top 100 coins by market cap in US dollars, plus 24-hour price change, see below.