• BitPay will include Ether (ETH) in its payment portfolio.
• Companies using BitPay for payment processing can now accept Ether (ETH) for purchases.
• Users of the BitPay Visa card will soon be able to load Ethereum (ETH) onto their card in addition to Bitcoin (BTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and pay with it.

BitPay, the largest cryptocurrency payment service provider with over a billion dollars in BTC transactions annually, announced yesterday that it will expand its service to the second largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, Ethereum (ETH). BitPay’s customers should be able to accept ETH in the coming weeks. However, an exact start date has not yet been set.

With the introduction, companies that accept payments via BitPay as well as BitPay Wallet and BitPay card holders will have the ability to store, send and receive Ether (ETH). Of particular interest for the acceptance and dissemination of Ethereum is the possibility for users to extend their BitPay Visa cards by loading Ether onto their BitPay card and then paying with Ether (ETH) at all BitPay acceptance points. In addition, the company will also offer gift vouchers in ETH in the BitPay app.

BitPay’s partners include Microsoft, airBaltic, Newegg, Neteller, Fancy, Shopify as well as Ledger and the basketball team Dallas Mavericks. They will soon be able to activate support for Ethereum without any additional integration effort.

Vitalik Buterin, the founder of Ethereum, was very pleased with the news and commented:

It is exciting to see how BitPay is driving the integration of Ethereum into global payment systems. This really opens up a new world of opportunitys for the Ethereum ecosystem, and together we can continue to be a leading innovator for real-world crypto-currency applications.

Stephen Pair, CEO of BitPay, said in the official statement that the integration of Ether was the “next logical choice” for the company:

BitPay is consistently at the forefront of using cryptocurrency to solve real-world problems and offer our global customers the best options to accept and pay with multiple blockchain assets. As one of the largest crypto currencies by market cap and one used by thousands of companies, Ethereum is the next logical choice

According to BitPay, in addition to the exciting potential of Ethereum’s Smart Contracts, there were three main reasons for supporting payments over the Ethereum network. First and foremost, as BitPay explained, many merchants, cardholders and wallet users have asked for it. On the other hand, Ethereum, with the second highest market share after Bitcoin, was a logical choice. Thirdly, BitPay will soon be able to support ERC-20 tokens and other stable coins by supporting payments in the Ethereum network.

So far BitPay only supports payments with Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash, as well as the Stablecoins USD Coin, Gemini Dollar and Paxos Standard Token.

Ethereum price still on the upswing

Within the top 5 crypto currencies by market capitalization, Ethereum (ETH) remains the biggest winner of last week (+9.44%) and last month (+6.65%).

As we reported yesterday, the Ethereum network is now more heavily burdened than ever by a high number of transactions from Tether (USDT). As a result, ETH Miner has decided to increase the gas limit.

As some analysts have noted, the increased use of the Ethereum network is a positive signal for ETH. Chart analyst Josh Rager noted that Ethereum has finally closed above the 20-day moving average for Bitcoin (ETH/BTC), which is a bullish sign for ETH.