Zip, the Australia-based buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) platform, has announced that it would be introducing crypto trading on its platform shortly and also would be allowing merchants to begin accepting payments in bitcoin.
This adds to the growing craze around crypto and with more firms beginning to realize that the crypto industry is here to stay, we are seeing many payment companies adding this feature to the platforms and openly encouraging their users and merchants to make payments through crypto. But so far, only bitcoin and ethereum are being added to most payment platforms that have chosen to add crypto and with their prices being as volatile as they have ever been, it remains to be seen how favorably the users would be viewing this addition. It is likely to make more sense if stablecoins are used for crypto payments but so far, the payment platforms seem to be quite reluctant to add this functionality which brings into question whether these companies are looking to just ride the fad or whether they are truly worried about bringing in utility for their users.
Zip is also expected to bring in a program called BitcoinBack in which the users would be able to convert their cash rewards into bitcoin. These new features are expected to be introduced first in the US next year but the company also plans to expand these features to other countries including Australia. The primary product of the company continues to remain the BNPL product which it says has been the main driver of growth as far as its payment volumes are concerned. Also, this facility has been extended to offline purchases as well and this has helped it to reach out to more users.
This is likely to create a win-win situation for all as offline merchants can bring in more sales and users are also able to use this feature beyond the online world. For certain merchants who have both an online and offline presence, this presents an easy way for streamlining their cash flow as well. Whether this introduction of crypto payments, especially in a volatile currency like bitcoin, would bring in any additional value or volume to the company is something that remains to be seen.
