E-commerce Giant eBay Like to Add Crypto As Payment Option, Also Considers Selling NFTs

04. May 2021 Posted by Akolkar B on News

After a mammoth growth of the crypto industry over the last year, e-commerce giant eBay is now considering crypto payments options for its customers. Thus, eBay users will be able to pay for their purchases in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies said company CEO Jamie Lannone.

During his recent interview with CNBC, the CEO added: “We are always looking at the most relevant forms of payment and will continue to assess that going forward. We have no immediate plans, but it (cryptocurrency) is something we are keeping an eye on”.

A growing number of global companies have recently started accepting cryptocurrencies as form of payment. PayPal has also rolled out crypto payments options for all its merchants worldwide.

“Demand on the crypto side has been multiple-fold to what we initially expected,” stated PayPal CEO Dan Schulman. On the other hand, even top-ten global companies like Tesla are accepting Bitcoin payments against its car sales.

Much interestingly, eBay is also looking out for ways to dabble in the red-hot NFT marketplace. The eBay CEO candidly disclosed that the company is looking for a “number of ways” to get involved with non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

The CEO said that they are currently looking out ways to enable NFT usage on the platform. “We’re exploring opportunities on how we can enable it (NFTs) on eBay in an easy way. Everything that’s collectible has been on eBay for decades and will continue to be for the next few decades,” he said.

When big giants like eBay and others participate it certainly brings more legitimacy to the crypto market. Besides, it will further bring more innovation to the rapidly emerging NFT market.

Well, it is not for the first time that eBay is considering the option to integrate crypto payment facility. Back in 2019, the e-commerce giant was considering a similar move but it did not somehow materialize considering the regulatory scrutiny at that point.

However, the market dynamics have changed this time as several corporate and institutional players have dipped their toes in the crypto space.

Customers will looking forward as to which digital assets will eBay support going ahead. Besides, how does it plan to handle discounts, shipping fee, and refunds.