NEW YORK—Most U.S. retailers expect digital currency payments to be the norm in the next five years, a new study reveals.
The report from Deloitte found 85% of the polled retailers expect to be receiving payments in bitcoin and other digital currencies in the near future, with three in four predicting this shift will happen within the next two years, CoinGeek reported.
The survey was conducted by Deloitte in collaboration with PayPal, which recently expanded its digital currency offerings upon receiving a BitLicense. The companies polled more than 2,000 senior executives at U.S. retail companies spanning fashion, cosmetics, digital goods, food and beverage, leisure, hospitality, electronics, and more. It was conducted in the first two weeks of December 2021, when digital asset prices were still high, CoinGeek noted.
Cryptocurrencies are now valued at approximately one-third their value in late 2021.
A Ubiquitous Future
Deloitte found 85% of merchants expect digital currency payments to be ubiquitous among suppliers in their respective industries in the next five years. Currently, a third of the respondents say there’s significant interest in bitcoin payments among their customers, while a third say there’s moderate interest. Only 2% said there’s minimal interest.
According to CoinGeek, in line with this high interest, 85% of merchants are giving high interest to enabling digital asset payments. Fifty-four percent of respondents said they have invested at least $1 million towards enabling such payments.
What Survey Reveals
For the sake of the survey, Deloitte noted digital currencies are a general term that encompasses both bitcoin and similar currencies as well as stablecoins and central bank digital currencies.
“This survey shows that merchants view acceptance of digital currencies—driven by consumer acceptance and demand—as key to driving business, and those that are slow to adopt run the risk of falling significantly behind,” Deloitte’s Zachary Aron said in a statement.
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