eBay’s Second Push

Not long after the world’s first Bitcoin ATM went into operation in Canada in October 2013, eBay announced it was considering accepting Bitcoin as payment. Needless to say, it didn’t happen, but eight years later things might be about to change:

• None of the major e-commerce companies have incorporated crypto payments into their platforms yet.
• eBay’s CEO Jamie Iannone, in an interview for The Street recently, confirmed they’d been considering crypto integration for some time, and might go official at their Investor’s Day on March 10th.
• Last year they refreshed their strategy aiming to become the e-commerce platform for Millennials and Gen Z, where anything could be bought or sold, whether physical or digital.
• Given that the platform manages $85 billion of transaction volume they’re looking for a suite of payment options, and already include Google Pay, Apple Pay, and an Australian method called Afterpay, which allows a “buy now, pay later” approach.
• Without officially endorsing it, NFTs have already made an appearance on eBay, with more than 1000 art NFTs currently for sale and hundreds more under music and collectibles sub-categories.

Major e-commerce companies accepting crypto would be a big deal for crypto users as it is another way to cut out a traditional fiat bank, similar to crypto credit cards, which we covered here.