What drives the adoption of crypto-payments by online retailers?

Abstract Using a large representative sample of retailers active in e-commerce, we find that acceptance of crypto-payments is modest (2%), but there is substantial interest among online retailers to adopt them. Regression analysis shows that consumer demand, net transactional benefits and perceived accessibility of accepting crypto-payments influence adoption intention and actual acceptance. Our findings also suggest that service providers who act as intermediaries in e-commerce play a crucial role as facilitators of competition and innovation by increasing accessibility. The most serious barrier for crypto-acceptance is a lack of consumer demand. It seems therefore unlikely that crypto adoption by online retailers will increase substantially in the near future.