Neistein targets fintechs and large networks. Photo: CoinPayments.
THE CoinPayments, a cryptocurrency payment platform, plans to close 2022 with around 5,000 direct customers in Brazil using its system and US$ 400 million (R$ 2.2 billion) in transactions. Therefore, it works with a 125% growth in the number of user businesses and 110% in values ​​compared to 2021.
In an interview with blocknews, Rubens Neistein, director for Brazil at CoinPayments, stated that the focus is on partnering with fintechs, e-commerce platforms and large networks. “Now, our effort is to make the platform available for goods and services, to allow the use of the largest possible number of shopkeepers”.
Last November, the CoinPayments, closed deal with Shipay, a fintech that integrates digital payments into retail receipt systems to enable the use of cryptocurrencies. The fintech is in 500 thousand physical points of sale and 10 thousand e-commerce, including clients such as Burger King and O Boticário. Therefore, when making this type of deal with a customer, CoinPayments accesses a number of merchants in one fell swoop.
Educating consumers is also part of the plan, as paying in cryptocurrencies is not usual, even for many people who have cryptos, but as a form of investment. In the “mouth of the cashier”, online or offline, Brazilians are used to “maquininha”, credit card and systems such as PayPal, for example.
Coinpayments fee is lower than card
Thus, it is with them that CoinPayments will try to compete. But for the shopkeeper, “we have many arguments to adopt our system. The card, for example, charges a higher fee”, defends Neistein. In 2021, the average rate was 2.02% of the value of the purchase on the credit card and 1.03% on the debit, according to the Brazilian Association of Credit Card and Services Companies (Abecs). The company fee is 0.5% of the transaction value.
In addition, with crypto, there is no chargeback of the purchase amount, since blockchain transaction has no return. This, for the consumer, can be an unpleasant point.
The use of cryptocurrencies in Brazil is growing and the country is gaining more and more attention in the sector scenario. Foreign companies are settling here and other Brazilian companies are being born. And it’s believing in what he calls “a big growth curve for cryptocurrency payments” that Neistein makes his plans.
CoinPayments was born in 2013 and was the first to offer payment processing with altcoins, that is, cryptocurrencies other than bitcoin. After that, it evolved into services such as support for digital wallets and currency conversion. Today, it has 2.2 million users in 182 countries. The company claims that it supports over 175 cryptocurrencies for payments and over 2,280 cryptocurrencies with dedicated wallets.
Neistein took over the operation in Brazil in April 2021, but is also expected to work for the operation in Latin America. “It was 9 months of strategic partnerships and advancements, consolidating CoinPayments as a crypto-crypto payment gateway,” he said. “In South America I am the only one (manager). We will expand to other countries,” he said. But, there are already stores in the region using the CoinPayments service.