Multinational e-commerce giant eBay would be trying to accept cryptocurrencies as a means of payment (here you can find out how to buy Bitcoin with PayPal), CEO Jamie Iannone said in a recent interview.
Satisfy Gen-Z and Millennials
The e-commerce market, which aims to be a place for Gen-Z and millennials, is looking into adding cryptocurrencies as possible means of payment. In a recent interview, Iannone said the company could announce March 10 during its investor day.
Iannone said:
“We are just completing our transition to handling payments where we are now directly managing $ 85 billion in volume on our platform. This gives us the opportunity to open new forms of payment ”.
Interestingly, in recent months, quite a few polls have pointed out that millennials tend to be the most crypto-friendly demographics, which explains eBay's upcoming crypto-verse venture.
Until now, the ecommerce platform had avoided fully embracing cryptocurrencies, even though it embraced non-fungible tokens (NFTs) last year in May. Without making any official announcements, Iannone highlighted the growing popularity of NFT trading on his platform.
Also, speaking of eBay's stance on emerging technologies like blockchain and cryptocurrencies, Iannone said the company changed its policies last year to make the ecommerce platform a place to buy and sell anything.
He added that the company has been trying to integrate cryptocurrency payment options for some time, due to the growing demand for the asset class.
Another blow to cryptocurrencies
While eBay's decision to integrate cryptocurrencies would be highly regarded in the market, this wouldn't be the company's first attempt at cryptocurrencies. Notably, eBay first tried integrating BTC payments in 2014, when BTC was still in its nascent stages.
Last year, in May, there was speculation that eBay was exploring integrating Bitcoin payments and NFT trading. Apparently, the crypto payments integration plan could now see the light of day as cryptocurrency adoption becomes mainstream.
eBay accepting cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum could further help mainstream adoption. In the recent interview, when Iannone was asked if eBay will add digital currencies such as BTC and ETH to payment methods, he stressed by highlighting the platform's objectives that:
“EBay will be the place where people trade goods, be they physical or digital. So over time, you know, we want this to be the market for sustainability ”.
