75% of US retailers plan to accept stablecoins or cryptos
Survey of US retailers finds 83% believe cryptos will become legal tender in 10 years time
Three-quarters (75%) of US retailers plan to accept stablecoins or cryptos as payments in the next 24 months, according to a report by British multinational professional services company Deloitte.
Almost all respondents to the Deloitte survey agreed that the use of cryptos for regular, everyday purchases will increase over the next few years. Deloitte believes this trend is likely to grow “as the technology continues to mature and merchants’ broad confidence is coupled with strong convictions”.
The report observed it was only in 2014 when the US retailer Overstock.com became the first major merchant worldwide to accept crypto as payment. Last year, 220 million people globally used cryptos. “The digital currency ecosystem is maturing, and the industry growth is continually fuelled by the increased utility and accessibility,” said Deloitte.
Of the respondents, 87% agreed accepting cryptos would give them a competitive advantage in the market, 93% of companies that already accept crypto “have already seen a positive impact on their business’s customer metrics” and 83% believe cryptos will become legal tender in 10 years’ time.
The magic number is 85
The report also found that 85% of retailers believe cryptos will be universally used within the industry in the next five years, 85% expect their suppliers to accept stablecoins and 85% expect their suppliers to accept cryptos.
Additionally, 85% said accepting cryptos was a high or very high business priority, while 83% said accepting stablecoins was a high or very high priority.
What’s the problem with accepting cryptos?
However, retailers do see issues arising when accepting cryptos as payment. The greatest challenge that would accompany crypto payments is the “complexity of integrating digital currencies with existing financial infrastructure”, said 45% of retailers.
The second greatest challenge, according to 43% or respondents, was the “complexity of integration across various digital currencies”.
The survey found the biggest barriers to crypto adoption are the security of the payment platform (43%), the changing regulatory landscape (37%) and the instability of the crypto market (36%).
The least cited challenge to crypto adoption for retailers was lack of budget at 30%.
The report was based on a survey that canvassed the opinions of 2,000 senior executives at retail organisations across the US.
