BitPay, Reaching a $2M Milestone in March, Cuts Fees

By Jon Matonis
PaymentsSource
Monday, March 25, 2013

http://www.paymentssource.com/news/bitpay-reaching-2m-milestone-in-march-cuts-fees-3013622-1.html

Bitcoin payment processor BitPay Inc. today announced its global
processing volume for the month of March will exceed $2 million, a
milestone for the company.

BitPay is also reducing its fees. The
company will now process Bitcoin transactions and support settlement
into 11 local currencies at a rate of 0.99% for all merchants.
Previously, there were separate conversion fees on top of the 0.99%
processing fee, so the company has essentially waived the currency
conversion charges.

Bitcoin payments are designed to resemble cash
transactions more than credit-card transactions. Bitcoin payments have
no disallowed merchant category codes (MCCs), no selective payment
embargoes, no chargebacks and near immediacy of final transaction
confirmation.

Accepting the digital Bitcoin currency as a payment
method allows merchants to reach customers in over 60 countries not
supported by PayPal. It also allows merchants to reach various countries
that are restricted by Visa and MasterCard for high fraud or lack of
infrastructure. A consumer transacting in bitcoins needs only a mobile
phone application or an Internet connection.

“We chose to
celebrate this milestone by rewarding all merchants, large and small,
with an across-the-board fee reduction, instead of offering tiered
pricing which rewards only the largest merchants,” says BitPay CEO Tony
Gallippi, in a press release. “We want our merchants to use this fee
reduction to offer discounts and incentives to their customers for
paying with Bitcoin.”

Settlements to local currencies are made
with a guaranteed exchange rate locked in at the point of sale for no
additional fee. This protects the merchant from potential volatility of
the bitcoin exchange rate.

Supported currencies for settlement
include the U.S. dollar, Canadian dollar, Australian dollar, New Zealand
dollar, euro, Pound sterling, Danish krone, Mexican peso, Norwegian
krone, Swedish krona and South African rand. Currently, BitPay provides
one-day settlement for the U.S. and settlement in 2-3 days for other
countries. Euro settlement is currently available in Belgium, Finland,
France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands.

BitPay has over
4,000 merchants on its payments platform and is acquiring new merchants
at a rate of 1,000 per month, the company says. It also recently
announced that it has integrated its payment platform with Amazon’s fulfillment services, enabling merchants to combine frictionless international payments with international shipping in a fully-automated system.

The
Amazon deal alone is a massive win for BitPay as it fits perfectly with
Amazon’s expansion strategy and showcases the qualities of the bitcoin
payment method. Gallippi said in an interview that “the Amazon
partnership has the potential to catapult the company to an entirely new
level.” AT THE INTERSECTION OF FREE BANKING, CRYPTOGRAPHY, AND DIGITAL CURRENCY