eBay Signs with BitPay Partner Adyen - Bitcoin Payments Coming Soon?

For the past few months, rumors have been swirling around that eBay is going to start accepting cryptocurrency payments. While nothing solid has come out yet, news of a major deal with payment Dutch provider Adyen could soon change that. Adyen previously made an arrangement with BitPay, a well known and highly respected bitcoin payment processor.

Step 1 - eBay Drops PayPal

In a major announcement made at the start of this month, PayPal is taking steps away from PayPal as its preferred payment method. PayPal has fallen on hard times recently as competition from more nimble operators like Venmo and cryptocurrency as a whole have largely undercut the behemoth.

eBay has instead decided to pursue a professional relationship with Dutch payment processor, Adyen. According to its official website, the company aims to offer "No interruptions or disruptions; just a smooth, secure experience, every time." Adyen also claims to be "fully omnichannel", meaning that the experience of buying on the web, in-store, or with a mobile phone should all be unified.

Step 2 - Adyen Partners With BitPay

BitPay, a well-known bitcoin payment processor that assists companies in receiving cryptocurrency payments and getting fiat cash has apparently joined forces with Adyen.

In the blog post from BitPay announcing the partnership, Tony Gallippi of BitPay writes:

Adyen's merchants can now easily accept bitcoin as a payment method from their e-commerce stores. Through the integration, each merchant's bitcoin sales will be seamlessly included in their reporting and settlement from Adyen. These are the types of integrations needed to advance bitcoin.

The blog post states that Adyen accepts over 180 currencies and "over 250 payment methods", which presumably includes credit card networks like Visa and Mastercard, and now cryptocurrencies like bitcoin.

Step 3 - eBay To Accept Bitcoin?

Back in December, Senior VP of eBay Americas Scott Cutler made the infamous statement that eBay is "seriously considering" bitcoin, but that "we're not quite there yet."

Today, eBay is where many cryptocurrency enthusiasts go to find mining hardware, related clothing, and collectibles. It's easy to say that if eBay were to start accepting bitcoin, it would easily be a big win for the company and could see major boosts in sales.

Most likely, however, most individual sellers on eBay would choose to receive fiat currency as their payment method of choice. This is entirely possible through BitPay, however, there are some fees involved in the transaction.

Finally, as payment terms can be agreed on between the buyer and seller outside of eBay, cryptocurrency payments are and always have been an option.

Another site that is well known for helping facilitate peer to peer sales, Craigslist, started adding an option for ads to list as "cryptocurrency ok". Search results for any given category can be filtered to only include cryptocurrency friendly sales.

We did a search for antiques in a New Jersey suburb and found a handful of items for sale that at least in theory accept cryptocurrency as a form of payment. One item was this charming antique barber chair, where "cryptocurrency ok" can be seen on the right hand side.

Image via Craigslist.com 

eBay, however, represents many billions of dollars in transactions each year and has grown to become a global conglomerate. They have a near monopoly on the second-hand sales and peer to peer sales market.

With the partnership with Adyen and their partnership with BitPay, there is very little standing in the way now. All that's left is for someone on the top of the eBay corporate ladder to say "let's do it".

We hope that this day will come sooner, rather than later.