Reddit Disables Bitcoin Payments Amid Coinbase Commerce Overhaul, But Are They Gone Forever?
Reddit no longer accepts Bitcoin payments for its premium membership program, Reddit Gold, although the feature may return to the social media platform in the future.
Last week, a Reddit user noticed that he or she was unable to use Bitcoin to gift another user a Reddit Gold subscription, a common way to show appreciation for a witty or informative post.
The platform first began accepting Bitcoin payments for Reddit gold subscriptions in Feb. 2013, when the cryptocurrency was trading at less than $25 — and Coinbase was boasting that it had processed $1 million worth of trades in a month — and the company also accepted BTC at RedditMarket, its now-shuttered merchandise store. At present, though, users can only purchase Reddit Gold with PayPal and credit cards.
Responding to the post, Reddit admin emoney04 explained that several factors led Reddit to disable Bitcoin payments, most notably the fact that Coinbase — whose merchant tools the company uses to accept Bitcoin — is launching a new merchant platform.
“Yup that’s right. The upcoming Coinbase change, combined with some bugs around the Bitcoin payment option that were affecting purchases for certain users, led us to remove Bitcoin as a payment option,” the admin said.
Announced last month, Coinbase Commerce allows merchants to accept multiple cryptocurrencies into a user-controlled wallet. But while the platform processes to be a significant upgrade for merchants, it requires them to migrate to the new system, which some businesses — particularly those that see low volumes of cryptocurrency payments — may decide is not worth the effort.
Notably, the admin added in another comment that Reddit is “not necessarily going to bring back the Bitcoin payment option,” whether through Coinbase Commerce or another payment processor, stating that the company would likely wait awhile before deciding whether to re-enable it.
“We’re going to take a look at demand and watch the progression of Coinbase Commerce before making a decision on whether to reenable,” emoney40 said.
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