— Conversation with CoinsPaid CEO Max Krupyshev.
Last year, the CEO of one of the largest payment systems in the world, PayPal, Dan Shulman, said that crypto payments would go mainstream. And it looks like the expert’s predictions are coming true. Recent research by Wirex and the Stellar Development Foundation proves that cryptocurrency payments represent a viable alternative to traditional payment solutions. Bitcoinist discussed with CoinsPaid CEO Max Krupyshev current trends of this sector, how it will develop in the future and whether there is a chance for Bitcoin to become a full-fledged means of payment.
On the adoption and popularization of cryptocurrency as a means of payment
In 2020 and 2021, the cryptocurrency market has reached a certain maturity. First, the sector’s capitalization exceeded $1 trillion for the first time, overtaking the world’s most expensive company, Apple, in asset value. Secondly, we are witnessing a serious interest in digital means of payment from state governments and even commonwealths. For example, the EU leadership has already raised the topic of studying digital currency and is considering creating its CBDC – the digital EURO. PayPal’s announcement about adding the option of paying with cryptocurrencies made a splash in the market. They started talking about cryptocurrencies as a full-fledged means of payment.
Nevertheless, for the possibility of crypto functioning on a global scale, it was necessary to create a specific legal framework and develop technological solutions allowing to accept payments in digital currencies.
The advantages of payments in cryptocurrencies are obvious: transfer speed, low transaction cost, and the complete exclusion of intermediaries. As a result, crypto is essentially a revolutionary product with the potential to completely overhaul the financial system.
The classical banking industry was initially reluctant to implement payments in crypto for several reasons, including many unscrupulous players at the initial stage of the market formation, lack of understanding of the technology itself, and the lack of ready-made solutions for making payments in crypto.
But the market continued to evolve, creating new products and gaining more and more popularity. Finally, at some point, we grew to this stage where the penetration of digital assets into traditional payment systems became irreversible.
Crypto payments and crypto processing business case
Today, you can buy luxury real estate, yachts, airplanes, and cars, using cryptocurrencies. Even Elon Musk’s rejection of Bitcoin as a means of payment did not affect the recognition of digital assets as a payment unit. This trend will continue in the coming years: more and more companies will use cryptocurrency as a means of payment.
“I think crypto payments are potentially relevant for all industries. However, some sectors (like iGaming and eSport) are transitioning to this type of service faster than others. I believe that payments in cryptocurrencies will sooner or later become accepted in all spheres of economy and commerce. At the end of 2020, CoinsPaid was the #1 payment gateway in the global iGaming market. During the same year, the company carried out transactions worth more than € 1.25 billion, and as of July 2021, CoinsPaid conducts around 5% of all on-chain Bitcoin transactions,” said Max Krupyshev.
“If we talk about the most popular cryptocurrencies for payments, then Bitcoin remains the absolute leader. It accounts for approximately 80% of all CoinsPaid transactions processed. A high number of transactions in Bitcoin is due to the popularity of the coin among the crypto community. Then there are transactions in USDT, which is less volatile compared to other altcoins and Bitcoin. Among USDT tokens, the popularity of payments in USDT on the TRON blockchain is growing in the CoinsPaid ecosystem. Considering the cost of commission and gas on the Ethereum network, this is not surprising at all.”
On the future of cryptocurrency payments
The crypto payments market will continue to develop further: new products and solutions will appear, and society will gradually get used to new payment units.
One of the market growth factors is the entry into the crypto market of large financial companies (PayPal, Visa, and others). The statements of the companies of the first echelon of the financial market about the start of working with crypto instruments serve as a signal that the traditional financial market is changing and crypto products have already become an integral part of it.
“Among the factors of constraint, I would name a certain lag of the regulatory base from the product, which leads to the fact that often technological solutions already exist, but their application in business is still impossible due to the lack of clearly defined legal rules. To this, I would add the precedents of fraud and hacker attacks, which, unfortunately, still exist in the industry,” says Max Krupyshev.
About DeFi Products
The DeFi niche continues to evolve. As of July 1st, the volume of funds blocked in DeFi protocols was $100 billion. Along with the popularity of the sector, so does the popularity of IDO.
CoinsPaid, mainly focusing on crypto-processing solutions, recently announced the launch of a DeFi product and the start of an IDO. Max Krupyshev comments on the reasons for this decision of the company.
“Today CoinsPaid has a well-built ecosystem that thoroughly covers the needs of our clients. We bring online business and DeFi together for over 700 business clients and their six million users by launching IDO. We have developed an exciting strategy for the development of the CPD token. In my opinion, today is the right moment for the further exponential expansion of the company and its services. “