BitPay, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency payment platforms, has released their 2024 BitPay Spending Report which provides a deep dive into cryptocurrency spending from January 1 to March 31, 2024. The report covers everything from the top industries for crypto payments, payments by coin and network, cryptocurrencies used to pay bills, and more.
Let’s take a look at some of their findings.
Crypto Spending Trends
BitPay noted a 20% increase in crypto payments volume from January to March of 2024, but that’s just one of the notable items in the report. Here are some more key takeaways:
Top Industries for Crypto Payments
Over the first few months of 2024, platforms that accept crypto payments have seen rises in spending in notable industries. This includes a 205% increase on gold and precious metals, a 92% increase in retail spending, and a 64% increase on electronics. They also noted that though with smaller sales volume, spending on marketing and sales with crypto is up 157%.
Payments by Coin, Network, and Wallets
It should likely be no surprise that BitPay found Bitcoin to be the number one coin and chain for payments, but it’s not the number one in terms of average transaction amount. USD Coin (USDC) took that spot with an average transaction amount of over $2,500 USD. The BitPay wallet was the number one crypto wallet used for these types of payment.
Crypto Payments Around the World
The US came in as the number one country using crypto for payments, with Germany coming in second. It’s notable that 4 of the top 5 countries are EU countries, as they’re closer to having a regulatory framework for crypto transactions than any other governmental body. If and when that framework is passed it’s possible that an EU country could pass the US as the number one country using crypto for payments.
When it came to US states, California was the number one crypto spender.
Paying Bills with Cryptocurrency
Bitcoin was the number one asset used to pay bills with cryptocurrency for the first few months of 2024, with Dogecoin actually being the second most used coin for paying bills. The average transaction amount is $1,200 USD, with 85% of bill payments going towards credit card bills. This means most people are using their crypto profits to pay off debts.
Crypto-Powered Gift Cards
BitPay found that crypto spenders increasingly converted crypto gains to gift cards to spend online and in-store as an alternative to spending directly with merchants or paying off bills.
This is because not every platform accepts crypto, but BitPay allows you to easily buy gift cards with crypto in order to essentially use crypto to pay on platforms that don’t directly accept it.
Crypto Spending Likely to Keep Increasing
The main thing that can be taken away from this report is that crypto spending is likely to increase over time. This is because high market cap cryptocurrencies tend to increase in value while most fiat currencies will remain static if not lose purchasing power over time. This means that crypto users will likely continue to use crypto profits to spend on everyday purchases or to pay bills.
As long as there is no black swan event for Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, there is little reason for their adoption and utility to stagnate, it’s just a question of how long mainstream adoption will take.
