Don’t expect more payments companies to start offering access to Bitcoin unless you ask for it.
Bill Clerico, CEO of WePay, the payments company JPMorgan Chase & Co. bought in October, said in a phone interview that his company is client-focused and hasn’t gotten enough requests to support cryptocurrency transactions.
“Crypto is very interesting,” he said, but added that his firm hasn’t received much in the way of customer demand, and “no one has figured out a killer use-case.”
The bank that his firm is now a part of has so far been divided on crypto. Late last year, JPMorgan Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon was one of bitcoin’s most prominent naysayers, calling it a fraud. At the same time, however, CFO Marianne Lake has been more measured, saying JPMorgan is “open minded” to the potential uses for digital currencies.
Square Inc. is the most high profile payments company to allow users to buy Bitcoin, while PayPal Holdings Inc. and Affirm Inc. seem to agree with Clerico, saying demand from customers isn’t there.
“If consumer demand increases for any new form of currency, we will consider support for those new payment methods as they become relevant to our customers over time,” Amanda Christine Miller, a spokeswoman for PayPal, said in an email late last year.
