A new research report by PYMNTS found that 35% of tech-driven consumers prefer to make payments using crypto, while 26% said they would even consider switching merchants to shop through those that accept crypto. The report also showed that litecoin, one of the major altcoins, has been gaining in popularity as means of payment at crypto payment platforms such as BitPay.

Litecoin Gaining Traction as a Crypto Payment Method

More than 1 in 3 tech-oriented consumers, or 35%, said they prefer paying through merchants that accept crypto, according to a new survey by PYMNTS’. Moreover, 26% of respondents said they would even switch merchants to shop where crypto payments are accepted.

The research suggests that mainstream adoption of crypto payments is picking up pace as consumers increasingly use digital wallets and more merchants accept them. One of the cryptocurrencies that are becoming increasingly popular as means of payment among consumers and merchants is litecoin.

Stephen Pair, CEO of the crypto payments app BitPay, said the litecoin community “has been really supportive, they’re buying everything with it. They really pay attention to the merchants on our platform and tend to become patrons of those companies.” Over the past year and a half, litecoin has become the second most popular crypto payment option at BitPay, accounting for 27% of all merchant purchases, behind bitcoin at 41%.

“Litecoin bills itself as the silver to bitcoin’s gold, and they’ve always been about payments and making it a great solution for conducting payments.”

– Stephen Pair, CEO of BitPay said.

The crypto processing platform unveiled its support for litecoin in July 2021. Since then, BitPay has handled more than 200,000 litecoin transactions with a total worth of more than $35 million.

The altcoin offers advantages over bitcoin, such as faster settlement times and an ultra-low fee of just a penny, compared to the bitcoin fee of 30 cents. Pair said BitPay users use litecoin for everyday purchases and repeatable transactions of several hundred dollars, while bitcoin is more popular for larger purchases.

Litecoin saw a sharp rally last month but remains down almost 60% year-to-date amid a broader market downturn. The altcoin is currently the 13th biggest cryptocurrency in the world, with a market cap of more than $5.03 billion, according to CoinMarketCap.com.

Some Merchants Still Not Ready to Implement Crypto Payments, Says BitPay CEO

PYMNTS’s survey also found that 4 in 10 consumers who hold crypto made online purchases using their digital assets in the previous 30 days. However, even though younger shoppers are increasingly turning to crypto, some merchants are still not ready to make the switch, Pair explained.

“There are many merchants that are still not ready for it. They may serve a demographic that is more buy now, pay later than a wealthier, cryptocurrency-using customer base. Maybe they just don’t see the demand from their particular customers for this payment option — but for many other merchants, we can be anywhere from 5-10% of their transaction volume.”

– Pair added.

A recent research report by ResearchAndMarkets.com showed that the global crypto payment app market size is expected to grow to $2.15 billion from 2022 to 2030 at a CAGR of 16.6%. The growth will be primarily driven by the burgeoning crypto market and support from TradFi payment giants such as MasterCard.

This article originally appeared on The Tokenist

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