Despite the fact that the cryptocurrency market crashed in May, wiping away roughly $40 billion in investor money, a recent poll by Deloitte indicates that businesses are confident about the future of cryptocurrencies.
75% of U.S. shops want to accept cryptocurrency or stablecoin payments over the next two years, according to Deloitte, a top worldwide supplier of audit and assurance, consulting, financial advising, risk advisory, and tax services.
According to research from Chainalysis and TripleA, there are already more than 320 million cryptocurrency users globally. Global crypto use increased by more than 880% last year. In the next years, it is anticipated that digital assets will have an even greater influence on the retail industry as more and more individuals continue to invest in cryptocurrencies.
adoption of digital currencies by businesses
Deloitte estimates that more than half of major retailers with annual sales of more than $500 million are presently investing $1 million or more in creating the infrastructure needed to include digital currencies into their offerings.
85% of the merchants questioned believe that cryptocurrency payments will become more common in their respective sectors within five years, and 60% believe that this year, budgets of more than $500,000 would allow bitcoin payments.
With 73% of merchants with sales between $10 million and $100 million spending between $100,000 and $1 million to build the appropriate infrastructure, small and medium-sized businesses are also moving into the market.
According to 64% of merchants, customer interest in utilizing cryptocurrencies for payments has been confirmed by their consumers, the poll also revealed that merchant adoption is being fueled by consumer enthusiasm. Approximately 83% of business owners believe that this interest will continue to rise in the future.
To this aim, a recent survey by the research company Insider Intelligence found that by the end of this year, a 70% increase in American consumers' reliance on digital assets for routine transactions is expected. By December 2022, 3.6 million Americans, or 10.7% of all cryptocurrency owners, will be using cryptocurrency to make purchases.
According to Insider Intelligence, the value of cryptocurrency transactions will surpass $10 billion globally this year. In fact, the business predicts that by 2023, there may be more than 37.2 million users globally as adoption of digital assets picks up speed. This number is plausible given that the number of investors joining the global crypto battlefield has almost quadrupled in nations like Brazil and India over the last year.
Favor Cryptocurrency Payments
While over half believe that the use of cryptocurrencies would improve the customer experience, 93% of businesses who currently accept them have seen an improvement in their KPIs related to customers.
There are still issues, however, as many business owners voiced worries about the security of payment systems (43%) as well as shifting laws (37%), volatility (36%) and a shortage of funding (30%).
According to 45% of the shops that responded to the poll, the complexity involved in integrating cryptocurrencies with legacy systems really presents the biggest obstacle. Deloitte said that since collaborations with regulated and well-established institutions in the sector assist to offer the advantages of digital currencies, greater adoption is more probable across a larger range of goods and services.
Additionally, if third-party processors avoided the customary holding time or provided no conversion costs for digital and/or fiat currencies, more than 80% of surveyed retailers would be inclined to accept digital currency payments.
According to statistics from Cryptwerk, as of right now, 7879 worldwide shops accept Bitcoin (BTC) as a form of payment. There are now 4081 Ethereum (ETH), 3284 Litecoin (LTC), 2935 Bitcoin Cash (BCH), 2058 Dogecoin (DOGE), 1770 Dash (DASH), 1658 Ripple (XRP), and 1299 Monero in circulation (XMR).
Leading fashion companies Balenciaga and Gucci recently announced that their flagship U.S. stores will accept cryptocurrencies, and PayPal recently expanded its offering to let users transfer cryptocurrency to outside wallets after introducing a new service that lets users buy, hold, and sell cryptocurrency directly from their PayPal accounts.
Between December 3 and December 16, 2021, Deloitte interviewed 2,000 senior executives of U.S. retail companies. Equal numbers of participants came from the fashion, food, beverage, home and garden, hospitality and leisure, personal and household products, services, and transportation industries. Digital goods, electronics, fashion, food, and drinks also received a fair share of participants.
Growth
In other developments, a recent study by Messari and Dove Metrics indicated that in the first half of this year, $30 billion was raised from 1199 investment rounds, surpassing the total amount received in 2021. A third of the total funds obtained went to the sector of centralised finance (CeFi), while $1.8 billion went to the field of decentralized finance (DeFi).
According to Steven Alexopoulos, an analyst at JP Morgan, venture capital (VC) investments in the industry have reached $18.3 billion so far this year, which is over quadruple the amount spent in 2020 and is on course to beat 2021's record of $32.4 billion. With these events in mind, it is evident that the cryptocurrency market is poised to grow further, with more acceptance laying the groundwork for this to happen.
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