The concept of cryptocurrency has been around since 2009, but it is only in 2017 that it truly began to scale, i.e., when bitcoin jumped from $921 to over $13,062 within 12 months. However, the interest wasn’t as widespread as it became in 2020, which is when the currencies found their way into almost every business.
From all the industries that benefited from crypto payments, high-risk payment industries were the ones that benefited the most. High-risk crypto merchant accounts helped the firearms industry, healthcare, entertainment companies, CBD vendors, gaming and gambling, and other companies that deal with critical information and equipment safeguard their information and transactions.
In this article, we will look at how high-risk cryptocurrency merchant accounts can help reduce the risk for businesses and make their processes more streamlined.
High-Risk Industries Embracing Crypto Payments
When it comes to debit and credit card transactions, large merchant account providers and payment processors often decline their service to high-risk businesses or charge premiums. This limits their options and makes it extremely hard for them to scale.
In the US alone, high-risk markets stack up to roughly $500 billion in transactions annually. As the number of payment processors decreases, they get more power and get to ‘dictate’ terms. The inherent security that comes with cryptocurrency helps balance the status quo again, giving high-risk companies the financial freedom they need to scale their business.
Because of the security and versatility offered by crypto merchants to these companies, high-risk industries embrace crypto payments fairly quickly and facilitate their payments in the process.
Benefits of Cryptocurrency for High-Risk Merchants
Reduced Risk of Fraud
There are a range of benefits that cryptocurrency offers high-risk merchants, with one of the most important and prevalent ones being that of blockchain-backed transactional security. The infrastructure allows for better control over finances and safeguards you as well as your customers.
High-risk companies are particularly vulnerable to chargebacks, fraudulent holds, high transaction fees, or placed on the dreaded Terminated Merchant File (TMF) lists. Cryptocurrency eliminates all these risks by limiting the number of parties included in a single transaction (it’s just you and the other party connected directly to each other!).
Flexible Payment Options
Implement crypto payment merchant accounts allows companies to get access to a younger, more tech-savvy audience, but that doesn’t mean that you have to leave out your current clientele or pay extra to stay relevant to them.
When you use high-risk merchants accounts, you can process crypto payments just as you usually process cards and bank accounts from the same gateway. Every crypto payment merchant account can process credit, and debit cards, but not every card processor can accept crypto payments on the same gateway.
Seamless Transactions
Several high-risk companies have already implemented crypto payments to reduce liquidity risks and fund limitations to boost their business before their competitors do the same. Apart from increased security offered by blockchain technology, companies are also leveraging the seamless, borderless, and low-fee transaction capabilities to scale businesses.
High-risk businesses always risk facing interruptions in their payment processes, be it from the bank, governments, or the customers themselves. The more parties that need to be involved, the more complex a transaction becomes and hence, decreases the purchasing power of individuals.
When high-risk businesses use fiat for their transactions, different banks may also need to be involved, especially if it is an international bank. This increases the cost of transactions and disrupts the high-risk merchant processing. Governments may also get involved, leading to potential delays in payment acceptance.
This means that companies are may be forced to carry out transactions in cash, which isn’t very convenient and may lead to theft.
Other benefits
There are a range of other benefits that crypto payments offer high-risk merchants, such as;
- The transaction is much more transparent with crypto compared to credit and debit cards. Since there are no intermediaries involved, the transaction fee is fixed, which means that your merchants will know exactly how much they will be charged – down to the last cent!
- Secure communication. The blockchain infrastructure also offers you and your customers the ability to connect on a single block without any prying ears listening/reading in. This opens up room for negotiation and other private matters your clients may want to discuss with you without risking fraud.
- Better integration with customer IDs.
- Decentralized currency means that there are no geolocation restrictions for any transaction, allowing you to target a much broader audience range.
- High-risk businesses are charged extra for ‘premium’ services as it is. This means lower profit margins for such businesses when using standard payment processing platforms.
- The payments are easy to track when reconciling bank accounts at the end of the month. This is blockchain’s ability to offer “computational trust.”
- Since more and more people are going with cryptocurrency, you can safeguard yourself against the potential risks the future may hold due to the economy’s state by implementing crypto payment accounts. This is because the same gateway can process different payment types, including cards and crypto payments. The more payment methods you offer, the more sales you make.
Conclusions
Blockchain technology can help businesses in the high-risk merchant processing industry and customers secure transactions and communications. The potential with crypto merchant accounts is practically limitless, considering how more and more people prefer crypto transactions.
By giving your company space and the ability to connect with this ever-growing market now, you get to gain early access to a large number of clients and avoid any potential economic disasters coming our way in the near or far future!
If you would like to learn more about how crypto payments help high-risk merchants get in touch with us via call or email today!
The post How Crypto Payments Reduce Risk for High-Risk Merchants first appeared on PaynetSecure.