Payments network Strike announced its integration with Canadian eCommerce platform Shopify, which will allow global merchants to accept bitcoin payments, according to a Thursday (April 7) press release.
The integration aims to make things easier for merchants by allowing them to accept the digital currency in the form of U.S. dollars and save on processing fees through cash-final settlements.
Lightning Network will convert bitcoin payments that come through the Strike network into U.S. dollars, a move that should limit volatility in the price of the digital currency.
Strike Founder and CEO Jack Mallers noted that the Strike-Shopify integration will also include offline merchants, including Walmart, McDonald’s and many others across the U.S. He took a shot at traditional financial institutions for their seeming unwillingness to meet the changing needs of consumers in an increasingly digital world.
“There’s not been since 1949 a superior payments network that allows us to innovate, build on financial inclusion, offer cheaper services faster services,” he said at the Bitcoin Conference where he made the announcement, according to a Coingape report. “My grandfather used the same technology as I do. That’s not American; that’s bullshit.”
Related: After Shopify Loses 60%+ of Its Worth Since November, Investors Suddenly See Value
Shopify has been taking investors on quite the roller coaster ride lately, with its stock price dropping from a high of $1,690 in November to less than $643 on Friday (April 8) after surging to $780 in mid-March.
In February, Shopify announced that its platform topped $6.3 billion in sales from the start of Black Friday in New Zealand through the end of Cyber Monday in California, up from $5.1 billion in 2020, according to the company’s quarterly and annual earnings report.
Subscriptions to the Shopify platform were up 26% year-over-year to $351.2 million, thanks in large part to more merchants joining the platform.