Ecommerce Giant eBay Likely to Integrate Crypto Payments Very Soon, Says CEO

Jamie Iannone, the CEO of 26-year-old multinational e-commerce company eBay, recently hinted at a crypto integration in its payment options. In a recent interview, Iannone said the firm might leap very soon towards crypto, especially to attract and engage the GenZ and millennial audiences.

The San Jose, California-based firm was founded in 1995 and became a notable success story of the dot-com bubble. The company is now a multibillion-dollar business with operations in more than 32 countries. According to reports, Jamie would announce the integration of crypto on its platform during the upcoming investor's day on March 10.

Currently, Google Pay and Apple Pay are accepted on its platform. Along with fintech company, Afterpay in Australia. The move towards crypto hints at moving ahead with the generation to draw and entertain the GenZ and millennial audiences while exploring new avenues.

In an exclusive interview with The Street, Iannone said, "We're just completing our transition to managing payments where we're now managing $85 billion of volume on our platform directly. This gives us the ability to open up new forms of payment." He further continued, "And so we continue to evaluate other forms of payments that we should take on the platform. We don't currently accept cryptocurrency on the platform."

The rise in popularity and market for crypto forced various online platforms to add crypto payments to avoid losing traction from the Millennial and Gen Z customer. 

Last year, the company policies were amended to make the e-commerce platform a place to buy and sell anything, be it a physical or digital commodity. They started making NFTs available in May 2021 under trading cards, music, entertainment, and art categories.

eBay is already famous for its growing popularity of NFT (non-fungible tokens) trading. Iannone said, "So even without announcing anything or doing anything, people started trading NFT on a platform."  He mentioned that he reminiscences when users sold cars when vehicle business was non-existent.

Momentarily, the crypto payment integration plan appears pretty solid as crypto has become common and permitted. Next week, more details will be announced on the upcoming investor's day on March 10.

A number of e-commerce players have been willing to add crypto payments to their platforms. It won’t be a surprise if giants like Shopify take a similar stand going ahead.