Will eBay Start Accepting Crypto?

By Rishma Banerjee

eBay, as we all know is the leading US-based international e-commerce platform. As per recent reports they have apparently hinted through their advertising posters at a Blockchain and Cryptocurrency conference, Consensus, that they are enthusiastic about associating with Blockchain and cryptocurrencies.

The conference which began on 13th May 2019 in New York, had participation mostly comprising of developers and investors. The one thing that caught the eyes of most attendees was the posters from eBay saying “It’s happening on eBay.”

The eBay ad spoke about the 179 million users that used their platform and said that they will soon be concerning themselves with virtual or digital currencies. However, the fact that no particular cryptocoin was mentioned may have other connotations like eBay deciding to launch their own digital currency. There is considerable confusion about that same as no official announcement has been made. But, it can be expected that an official statement will be released during the course of the conference which is to go on for the next two days.

eBay is one of the most popular peer-to-peer e-commerce platforms. Hence, the provision of using cryptocurrency on their portal would only streamline the entire process, induce trust and transparency into the system as well and help is bringing it to the mainstream.

Last Month, a passive payment model on Amazon was introduced by the moon network which enabled cryptocurrency payments on online retail stores through a browser extension. According to Moon, eBay was next in line to be integrated into the system.

Rakuten, the Amazon of Japan, has been accepting Bitcoin and crypto payments since 2015. Furthermore, it is also developing a cryptocurrency Exchange for which it acquired the regulatory license earlier this year.