Financial news

Despite its ongoing market volatility and the spectacular decline of some of its biggest exchanges; the cryptocurrency industry continues to captivate users as the latest way to pay. But where in the world is that captivation less of a pipe dream and more of a reality?

The latest figures from Forex Suggest reveal the US, the UK and Canada as the world’s top destinations for accepting payments in cryptocurrency.

The US is currently home to 127 crypto-accepting businesses; nearly half of the world’s total. Across the pond, the UK lagged behind with 28 crypto-capables, followed by Canada with 12.

Examples of the US’s successful track record in cryptocurrency payments include the integration of commerce platform Primer with Coinbase in October 2022 to enable merchants to accept digital currency as payment.

Likewise, tech giants Microsoft and PayPal continue to progress significantly in the space with major investments confirmed throughout last year.

Open shop

In regards to the environments in which cryptocurrency is being spent, Forex Suggest finds e-commerce to be the biggest industry for cryptocurrency acceptance.

In this department, Rakuten, Shopify and Overstock are all highlighted as examples of the 30 e-commerce businesses with crypto-friendly checkouts. Following e-commerce is the travel industry with a close 26 and internet services at 24.

For example, industry giant Expedia accepts Bitcoin as payment for hotel bookings, while many airlines such as AirBaltic, LOT Polish Airlines and Norwegian Air have all started accepting cryptocurrency payments.

Likewise, the food and beverage and retail industries each have 23 businesses accepting cryptocurrency, followed by charity and gambling with 19 and 15 respectively.

Sports teams are also becoming increasingly crypto-friendly. Correlating to the data, the US has the most sports teams accepting cryptocurrency with a total of seven out of the 10 sports teams. Also in the leading region, Senator