From retail to e-commerce, the Breez and 1A1z report reveals global Bitcoin payment growth.
A new report by Breez and 1A1z, titled “Bitcoin Payments: From Digital Gold to Everyday Currency”, reveals Bitcoin’s transformation path from a store of value to a daily currency: according to the study, Bitcoin is no longer just a digital safe-haven asset, but is establishing itself as a true global payment tool.
The research argues that over 650 million people today have access to bitcoin payments via LN. It is worth noting that this figure refers to users who can use LN today and not those who have actually used it.
From the African retail giant Pick n Pay to the Japanese e-commerce giant Mercari, up to the Italian furniture leader Mondo Convenienza, the data shows how Bitcoin is rapidly penetrating various sectors and geographical markets.
Beyond the digital gold narrative
According to the authors, while the comparison with digital gold has helped many understand Bitcoin’s quality as a store of value, such a metaphor risks obscuring Satoshi Nakamoto’s original vision. Bitcoin’s creator had indeed imagined a peer-to-peer electronic money system, designed to move without intermediaries.
This vision is finally taking shape, with growing adoption of Bitcoin payments globally. And it is precisely the Lightning Network (LN) that is making Bitcoin an optimal tool for daily transactions.
The ecosystem’s growth
According to the research, the Lightning Network has reached over 650 million potential users. The number is the result of a series of LN integrations on major global exchanges:
- 110M+ users through OKX
- 200M+ users via Binance
- 100M+ users through Nubank
- 57M+ users with Coinbase
- 49M+ users through Cash App
Unlike other networks, LN’s growth occurs organically, without anyone forcing companies and services to integrate this payment method.
Why not use stablecoins?
According to the report’s authors, USDT integration on LN could accelerate the network’s mass adoption, combining stablecoins’ lack of volatility with LN’s efficiency and speed.
However, an aspect emerging from the study is Bitcoin’s superiority over stablecoins:
- Native Digital Currency: Bitcoin is the only true native currency of the Internet;
- Independence: Bitcoin is not subject to dollar inflation and central banks’ monetary manipulations;
- Regulation: Risk of delisting by exchanges as in the case of USDT after the MiCA implementation;
- Centralization: Stablecoins are vulnerable to censorship and external control by involved intermediaries.
Why use Bitcoin for payments
For the authors, Bitcoin payments do not merely replace existing systems but introduce possibilities that were previously technically unfeasible. Thanks to the combination of self-custody and Lightning Network, sending small amounts of money has become as simple as sending an email.
The limits of traditional systems
Conventional payment systems, particularly credit cards, have structural limitations that make them unsuitable for:
- Micropayments: Fixed and proportional fees (average 3.5%) often exceed the transaction value itself;
- Streaming Payments: Slow settlement times make real-time payments impractical;
- High-Frequency Transactions: Processing costs make repeated small-amount transactions uneconomical.
Moreover, current financial intermediaries impose additional obstacles:
- Geographic restrictions;
- Chargeback risks (refund requested by the customer to their bank, which cancels a transaction made with credit or debit card);
- Minimum transaction thresholds;
- Long processing times;
- Average international remittance costs of 6.2%;
- High administrative costs.
The LN solution
With the advent of LN, these limitations are overcome through:
- Minimal Fees: fractions of a cent per transaction;
- Instant Settlement: transaction confirmation in milliseconds;
- No Minimum Threshold: possibility of sending even microscopic amounts;
- Global Coverage: no geographical restrictions.
The THNDR case: micropayments in gaming
A concrete example of how LN is transforming certain sectors is represented by THNDR, a gaming app. The company has developed a system that allows game integration with betting on any website or application, using exclusively Bitcoin as a payment method.
The uniqueness of the THNDR model lies in its ability to eliminate one of the major obstacles in online gaming: the need to pre-fund user accounts. Thanks to LN, which allows deposits of less than a dollar with negligible fees, players can place their bets in real-time, without having to block funds in advance. This approach not only increases security by eliminating the need for THNDR to hold user funds but also makes transactions economically sustainable that would be impractical with traditional payment methods.
In three and a half years, THNDR has processed over 7.5 million bitcoin payments. As confirmed by co-founder Jack Everitt, the choice to exclusively accept bitcoin has proven successful:
“No one is requesting alternative payment methods to bitcoin, which is a positive sign.”
Additional use cases
LN Markets: speed and trading
Through LN integration, the LN Markets trading platform registered a 445% volume increase and a 640% revenue growth between 2023 and 2024. The platform eliminated traditional financial trading obstacles, allowing users to operate directly from their wallets with instant deposits, withdrawals, and settlements. As co-founder Romain Rouphael highlights, “using Bitcoin overcomes numerous financial bottlenecks”, making operations possible that in traditional markets would be slowed down by banking integrations and counterparty risks.
Charity:water: multiplying donations through Bitcoin
The charity:water organization integrated Bitcoin for donations. As Ben Greene, the organization’s Chief Revenue Officer, points out, the reduced transaction fees of Bitcoin compared to credit cards already represent a significant advantage, but it was the Bitcoin Water Trust strategy that made the difference. Launched in 2021, the trust, thanks to Bitcoin’s appreciation, transformed initial donations of $4 million into over $10 million, with a 250% growth, simply by holding bitcoin until 2025. “Bitcoin’s multiplier effect has been profound,” Greene states, “donations that once helped a few dozen people now have the potential to transform thousands of lives”.
Big businesses embrace Bitcoin: four case studies
Japanese e-commerce Mercari
By launching a Bitcoin trading service accessible to its 23 million users in March 2023, the Japanese e-commerce giant Mercari attracted over 2 million new users in 12 months. The subsequent launch of bitcoin payments in February 2024 generated over 100,000 transactions in the first month.
- 3M+ users have purchased bitcoin
- 86% of users are new bitcoin holders
- 100,000 Bitcoin transactions completed in the first month
Namecheap: Bitcoin payments since 2013
The domain site Namecheap, a pioneer in Bitcoin adoption since 2013, has refined its payment system through BTCPay Server, eliminating intermediaries and ensuring peer-to-peer transactions. The strategy led to a 23% increase in revenue per user in 2024, reaching $146.55.
- $73M in bitcoin payment revenues since 2020
- 1.1M bitcoin transactions completed
Pick n Pay: Bitcoin in African retail
The African retail giant Pick n Pay became the first major retailer on the continent to accept bitcoin payments in February 2024. Through the partnership with MoneyBadger, the company implemented Lightning payments that proved faster and more economical than traditional methods, attracting a new customer segment.
- $55,000 in average monthly revenues from bitcoin payments
- +285% growth in the customer base using bitcoin (2023-2024)
Mondo Convenienza: furniture meets Bitcoin
The Italian furniture leader Mondo Convenienza introduced bitcoin payments in July 2022, aiming to attract millennials and Generation Z. The move, made possible through collaboration with Chainside, contributed to a 10% growth in bitcoin payments between September and November 2024.
- €500,000 in annual revenue from crypto payments
- +10% growth in bitcoin payments (September-November 2024)
Infrastructure and development
The growth of the LN ecosystem is supported by an increasingly diversified technological infrastructure that ranges from LN node implementations to non-custodial wallets, from integrated payment processors to streaming and podcast apps, creating a complete and interconnected ecosystem for bitcoin payments.
| Category | Services |
|---|---|
| Node Software | LND, Core Lightning, Eclair, LDK |
| Exchange & Broker | Binance, Coinbase, Kraken, OKX, Bitfinex, Relai, Bitso, River |
| Lightning-as-a-Service | Breez, River, Lightspark, Ibex |
| Custodial Wallet | BlueWallet, Wallet of Satoshi, Blink, Muun |
| Non-Custodial Wallet | Phoenix, Zeus, Aqua |
| Remittance | Strike, Osmo, Bitnob |
| Hosted Services | Greenlight, Voltage, Blockdaemon |
| Social/Nostr | Damus, Primal |
| Streaming | Wavlake, Fountain |
| Gaming | THNDR, ZBD, Pnk Frg |
| Payment Processors | BTCPay, Coingate, BitPay, Zaprite, MoneyBadger |
| Rewards/Gift Cards | Fold, Satsback, Bitrefill |
As highlighted in the document, “Bitcoin payments are here. In all sectors and countries, they are enabling real-time peer-to-peer transactions without intermediaries”. The growth of the LN ecosystem is “laying the foundations for a new era of native Internet payments powered by a native Internet currency”.
The success will depend on three key factors:
- Continuous innovation in development tools;
- Integration into mainstream products;
- Support for the developer community.
As the report emphasizes: “Bitcoin is pure money and pure software, and software improves through developers’ efforts. If Bitcoin wins over developers, it wins the world”.
