Microsoft Adds Bitcoin Support to their Online Store Again

Not long ago, Microsoft, which was an avid supporter of bitcoin, decided to stop letting customers make payments via the digital currency, because of volatility issues. Now, recent reports indicate that the technology giant will be once again welcoming bitcoin as a method of payment, for their Xbox and Windows online stores.

According to a statement made by Microsoft on Wednesday, the company has decided to allow customers to add bitcoin to their Microsoft digital wallets, where the coins can be redeemed as dollars. Therefore, payments cannot be made directly via the cryptocurrency, by scanning a QR code.

In a recent press statement, a Microsoft spokesperson said that, “We’ve restored bitcoin as a payment option in our store after working with our provider to ensure lower bitcoin amounts would be redeemable by customers.”

Microsoft chose to add bitcoin support at an unexpected time, given the recent massive price swings that bitcoin has been dealing with. In fact, only yesterday, the South Korean government begun discussing a legislative project that would ban exchange-based trading altogether for digital currencies. The news resulted in yet another price decline for both bitcoin, but also for many other digital currencies.

The move is similar to what video game-provider Steam has done a while ago. The gaming platform was well-known for their bitcoin acceptance, yet a couple of weeks ago, the service has also decided to suspend the payment method for an undetermined period of time. It is worth stating that Steam did mention that it is very possible for them to begin accepting bitcoin once again in the future, although no clear date has been determined so far.

Based on everything that has been outlined so far, it seems like merchant adoption for digital currencies is not declining, which is great news for the market. Many crypto holders would like to see companies such as Microsoft begin accepting bitcoin payments for retail products as well, rather than online software purchases alone.