eBay May Be Accepting Cryptocurrency For Future Payments

It's hard to remember a time when e-commerce platforms didn't exist, let alone paying for items online through e-payments. That time wasn't all that long ago, actually. 

Only in the mid-1990s did e-commerce marketplaces like Amazon, Alibaba, and others start to really gain any traction, and along with them, of course, e-payments. These forms of e-payments are completed in a matter of minutes, with only a few clicks and numbers entered, facilitating the lives of consumers and companies alike. 

So, it's not such a huge surprise that these evolutions keep moving forward. This week on Monday, May 3, eBay's CEO Jamie Iannone announced in an interview with CNBC that the e-commerce giant was looking into accepting cryptocurrencies as a payment option in the future.

Iannone also said that eBay would be exploring opportunities with non-fungible tokens (NFTs), which have been garnering more and more attention of late. 

Given the e-commerce platform boasts some 187 million users globally, as it stated in its 2021 Q1 release, this new payment option could hugely boost the popularity and use of cryptocurrencies around the world.

Companies that accept cryptocurrency payments

As we previously mentioned, cryptocurrencies are gaining speed as a form of online payment, and some major companies have already taken it on board. Two of the biggest names on the list are Telsa, and Microsoft, both of which accept payments in cryptocurrency. 

Just in late March, Tesla's CEO Elon Musk took to Twitter to exclaim that "You can now buy a Tesla with Bitcoin." Microsoft, on the other hand, allows the use of Bitcoin for its users to top up their Microsoft accounts. 

Other big players accepting cryptocurrency payments in specific countries and conditions include Virgin Galactic, Amazon (not directly), AT&T, Subway, Burger King, and many more.

As for NFTs, which are a type of digital asset made up of a string of unique characters to prove online art's authenticity, these are also picking up in popularity. Of late, Twitter's CEO Jack Dorsey sold the world's first-ever Twitter post for $2.9 million as an NFT, and the "Disaster Girl" meme sold for $500,00 as an NFT, not to mention digital artist Beeple's digital art collage selling for a massive $69.3 million as an NFT. 

It's easy to see why companies like eBay would be "exploring" and pursuing NFTs, and cryptocurrencies. They're keeping up with the times, as all those first e-commerce companies did back in the mid-1990s.