By Jillian Godsill / Irish Tech News

The use of cryptocurrency for payments is quickly increasing: People's awareness of its benefits, such as transaction speeds and lower fees than fiat, is also growing fast globally.

According to a Triple-A report, brick-and-mortar shops are slowly adopting crypto payments, although there are 18,000 that already do. Online shops are a whole other story. Currently, millions of online shops globally accept cryptocurrency payments from over 300 million crypto users worldwide. 

And speaking of crypto adoption, a Chainalysis study reveals that it is growing exponentially. From Q2 2019 to Q3 2021, global cryptocurrency adoption grew by over 2300% and over 881% in the last year alone.

The global eCommerce market is also rising and poised to grow to $5.4 trillion in 2022 and $6.3 trillion in 2024. So, it's no wonder that crypto payment methods are also estimated to grow by more than 40% next year and over 50% in 2023, according to a news report.

All these fascinating statistics come into context because NOWPayments has enabled millions of eCommerce websites and charities to start accepting crypto as payment. The most recent crypto added is the IOTX token of IoTeX.

This Silicon Valley-based blockchain whose primary goal is to connect the physical and digital worlds enabling users to privately and securely interact with their devices and own the value they generate.

NOWPayments allows any website to accept IOTX and other crypto payments by integrating their plugin into the most popular eCommerce platforms such as Shopify or WooCommerce. Shopify alone boasts over 800,00 online stores and processes over $60 billion in yearly sales.

"IOTX token has a lot of utility, like gas fees, governance and certification, and we hope that the use cases NOWPayments contributes to the ecosystem (payments, donations) will bring mass adoption even closer,” said Xena Kash, of NOWPayments.

Kash, who said her company’s merchants will be added to Cryptwerk, also said that more than 12,000 merchants are registered with NOWPayments and are able to accept crypto payments, including IOTX.

Twitch streamers can also start accepting crypto donations via NOWPayments by simply registering an account and adding the dedicated widget to their Twitch profile.

The NOWPayments and IoTex collaboration is significant because it adds greater utility to IOTX by making it payable on millions of websites and streamers worldwide.

Why merchants should hook up to NOWPayments

This crypto payment company is a game-changer because it has a significant competitive edge over traditional credit and debit card payments.

For example, the fees merchants pay on NOWPayments are up to eight times lower than with Visa or Mastercard. Merchants using NOWPayments pay only 0.4% to 0.5% in fees. When accepting debit or credit cards, merchant fees range from 1.3% to 3.5% of their sales.

Employee crypto payrolls 

Companies paying employee salaries in crypto is at its very early stages, but yet, it's beginning to take off quite well, according to a Business Matters article entitled Companies are paying employees in Bitcoin, and they're loving it.

Logically, employees at blockchain companies are easiest to please with the crypto payment option. GMO Group, an internet company with over 5,400 employees listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, started paying their staff with bitcoin. 

A fascinating story on MarketWatch could describe the benefits of paying employees in the right cryptocurrency. A person wrote to Quentin, the Moneyist, who answers financial and ethical questions, and told him their CEO had paid employees in crypto but that a short time later asked for it back after it rose by 700%.

Businesses and companies globally can now also start paying their employees with crypto, including IOTX, via NOWPayments. It launched its Mass Payments feature that enables crypto-powered payrolls so that employers can send salaries, part of the salary, or bonuses to their employees.

The feature is also available to any project that deals with payouts regularly, like social media, faucets, freelance platforms, affiliate rewards, rebates, and so on.

For wider crypto adoption to happen, it is crucial that digital wallets, securely stored crypto, be made more user-friendly. There must also be more real-world use cases, such as NOWPayments and Travala, where IoTeX token holders can purchase flights and accommodation at millions of hotels worldwide.