Fintech in e-commerce

Jason Butcher on Crypto and Fintech in E-Commerce

Knowledge and insights from a fintech expert

On this episode of E-Commerce with Coffee?!, podcast host Nate Svodoba is joined by Jason Butcher, CEO of CoinPayments. As a lifelong entrepreneur, Jason has a lot of experience across multiple industries and was involved in some of the first brands to start embracing the internet. Naturally, that led Jason to crypto–specifically, to CoinPayments.

CoinPayments started as a means through which the founders could accept crypto payments themselves. Working with Jason, however, the vision grew to be so much more, and the brand is now the largest and most widely-accepted crypto payment processor in the world.

Before getting into the meat of the discussion, however, Nate leads with the titular question: how does Jason take his coffee? Being the busy person that he is, Jason explains that he is absolutely a coffee guy–day and night. When pressed for time, Jason gets his coffee from a Keurig. Nothing wrong with a quick and convenient brew to get you going!

From there, Nate and Jason take us through a great conversation about crypto gateways, the purpose of crypto, and so much more.

Crypto gateways and consumer adoption

First thing’s first, who needs to take crypto anyway? As Jason explains, truthfully, anybody and everybody can actually benefit from it! If you think about it strategically, accepting crypto payments ultimately boils down to a fundamental concept in e-commerce: give your customers options.

Often, cart abandonment happens when customers go to check out but realize they don’t have their payment information on hand. Accepting crypto is simply one more chance at making sure you aren’t losing those sales.

Consumer adoption of crypto is nowhere near other more traditional forms of payment, like credit. Nevertheless, Jason explains that getting ahead of this consumer adoption curve is a strength–not a weakness. Credit is one of the most popular forms of payment today, and that took several decades to “catch on.”

Crypto is moving at such a fast rate, and it’s a good idea to get set up to both reap the benefits and also start understanding the nuances of crypto and fintech while we’re still moving towards higher adoption rates.

Being “payment agnostic”

Jason hits us with a bit of wisdom regarding coins and crypto in general. He explains that he is “payment agnostic,” meaning that rather than backing a specific coin, payment, or asset type, Jason believes in “value” at any rate. People have always engaged in exchange on the basis of “value,” however those specific persons have contemplated the idea. Crypto is simply another way to frame this value exchange.

Jason thinks that the ultimate “winners” of the crypto sphere will be communities who share a common concept of “value,” and are able to leverage crypto assets in order to make that understood value tangible.

Further, Jason is excited about the power of crypto to promote and empower global communities and economies through different digital assets. This, however, is not really the focus of a lot of popular coins, and Jason sees this as room for growth in the crypto space.

Which coin to take

Finally, it’s the important question that every brand needs to ask: which coin should you take? Truthfully, the answer to this needs to be case-by-case. There’s no reason to be able to take Mexican pesos in Canada, or vice-versa, but the “borders” of the crypto world are a lot less obvious. It’s important to take the coin your consumer base is willing and ready to spend, but how can you know what the right coins are?

Luckily, as Jason explains, you don’t really have to! By using a service like CoinPayments, brands are able to easily take thousands of different coins and, even more importantly, are able to convert any and all crypto received into a common coin of choice. This takes the tricky guesswork out of the process, and is ultimately a better experience for everybody involved.

Itching to learn more about fintech and e-commerce? Get your favorite brew ready and watch or listen to this episode of E-Commerce with Coffee?! for the full conversation and even more interesting and useful insights!