Gyft Platform Experiences Sudden Reversal in Payments Trends

September 1, 2024 by

Vinny Lingham, CEO of Gyft, revealed new insights on customer payments preferences and online purchasing trends.

Since 2013, bitcoin made up a whopping 90 percent of the company’s sales, while mainstream payment methods, such as PayPal and credit cards, accounted for the remaining 10 percent.

“The reason we started [accepting bitcoin payments for gift cards] is because I am a bit of a bitcoin fanatic and being the CEO and co-founder is kind of one of those things where you build the company and its DNA around the things that you are passionate about,” explained Lingham.

Surprisingly, a couple of years later the momentum has completely shifted. Bitcoin payments dropped by 80 percent and traditional mediums have reclaimed its top position as the preferred payment methods for Gyft users.

The upward trend that the company experienced when it first introduced bitcoin was fueled by curiosity and hype that surrounded the new currency. As awareness and adoption increased, customers were eventually forced to face the realities of an unstable currency.

Despite the changes currently taking place in the payments space, Lingham still has high hopes for bitcoin.

“It will get there, it may take five years to get there but it will get there and at that point it will be a very stable asset and the price fluctuation will be very minimal,” said Lingham.

“I think we will get to the point eventually where you can use bitcoin as a currency, we are just nowhere close to that right now.”

Like other digital currency advocates, the CEO of Gyft supports blockchain research and plans to leverage the technology in the future. Through the Gyft Block project, the company is aiming to apply the record-keeping capabilities of the system to its database of users.

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