Paxful Rolls Out Bitcoin Payments Feature for Online Businesses

Popular peer-to-peer (P2P) blockchain company Paxful has launched a new product, dubbed Paxful Pay, that would allow online businesses to receive Bitcoin payments, per its press release.

Merchants Can Hold Bitcoin

Paxful Pay would make it possible for customers to pay online merchants using several payment methods. Once the payment is received, Paxful would convert it into Bitcoin and send it to the merchant's wallet. Paxful is not stopping with Bitcoin. According to the roadmap, popular stablecoin Tether's USDT would also be supported in the coming weeks. The service is mostly targeted at Paxful customers, which means they will find it easy to integrate other Paxful services such as the wallet and the marketplace. New users will have to sign up for a Paxful account, which will probably distort the e-commerce flow. Artur Schaback, COO and co-founder of Paxful, spoke on why the product was needed for online purchases. He said:

"We're thrilled to bring Paxful Pay to our global community. There is a clear need to offer local options for bitcoin and this product is a culmination of our efforts to deliver on that demand. By offering users the ability to complete purchases using almost 400 payment methods, they will now have an even stronger financial solution at their fingertips. We cannot wait to expand this offering to encompass as many merchants as possible."

Paxful said Paxful Pay has onboarded over 100 merchants and is looking at adding more before the year runs out. The company continues to roll out a suite of innovative crypto products to aid adoption. Paxful previously launched a crypto debit card in November last year. The card enables users to convert Bitcoin into fiat currency at the time of purchase.

Paxful’s Focus On The African Market

Although Paxful has users in the US and Asia, it has a major focus on the African market. This might be attributed to the mass P2P businesses that exist in Africa. According to the New York-based firm, Nigeria is its biggest market and the largest P2P market in sub-Saharan Africa. Kenya and South Africa also have large P2P businesses. Last year, the company revealed it was actively looking to join forces with African-born crypto players to grow its market share on the continent. Founded in 2015 with headquarters in New York, Paxful has over six million users and over $5 billion traded on its platform since inception.