CoinPayments partners with Shopify to accept crypto payments

Shopify reached this point after testing the integration with CoinPayments during a beta program in 2019. The platform operates in more than 175 countries, and adding crypto removes friction from international transactions. Merchants avoid currency conversions and extra fees that come with traditional cross-border payments.

Jason Butcher, the CEO of CoinPayments, said the agreement enables integration of the payment processor's easy-to-use platform with Shopify's merchant network. "As leaders in e-commerce and crypto payments, our combined expertise reflects the future of business transactions," Butcher said. The partnership, he believes, will be among several developments allowing merchants to cut costs and process payments more efficiently.

In the first months of 2020, Shopify joined the Libra Association, Facebook's initiative to launch the Libra cryptocurrency. The association has lost some heavyweight members, including Visa, but counts Temasek of Singapore among additions. The group now has 27 partner companies.

CoinPayments, based in the Cayman Islands, has handled over $5 billion in crypto transactions. This week, blockchain data provider Glassnode noticed something on the network: a wallet dormant for 11 years moved 50 bitcoins, with small portions landing on CoinPayments and Coinbase. Glassnode reported "minor amounts of this transaction have moved into Coinbase (0.004 BTC) and CoinPaymentsNET (0.003 BTC)." The firm also flagged rising transaction fees. Users are now paying around $7 per transaction, the highest rate since early 2019.