Tom Karlo, payments manager at payments organisation Stripe has stated that the company will be ending its support for Bitcoin payments.

the news is significant because Stripe became the first major payments company to support Bitcoin in 2014, and for the reasons.

On the Stripe website, Karlo explains that Bitcoin is now “better-suited to being an asset than being a means of exchange”. As a traded asset it is less useful for payments as increasing transaction times create greater fluctuations in the Bitcoin price. Karlo also points to increasing fees, making Bitcoin transactions as expensive as bank wires and removing one of its major attractions.

Stripe has taken the decision in part because of the above reasons, and in part from decreasing demand, both from consumers and businesses accepting Bitcoin on Stripe.

Stripe will stop processing Bitcoin transactions on April 23, 2018.

Karlo adds that, “Bitcoin itself may become viable for payments again in the future. And, of course, there’ll be more ideas and technologies in the years ahead.”

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