Bitcoin Payment Processor IBEX Pay to Suspend Services in US

Bitcoin payment processor IBEX Pay will suspend all its services in the United States, effective May 31.

The company announced the move in a Wednesday (May 15) post on X (formerly Twitter).

“Any outstanding balance will be transferred to our clients’ Swan accounts or Bitcoin addresses,” IBEX Pay said in the post. “We urge our clients to provide their Swan accounts or Bitcoin addresses now, as processing a withdrawal after 31st of May will be a lengthy process.”

After careful consideration it has been decided that effective 31st of May 2024, all IBEX Pay services in the USA will be suspended.

Thank you for the support you have given us and we hope to serve you in the future. pic.twitter.com/7AXiDwW7DI

— IBEX Pay ⚡️ (@IBEXpay) May 15, 2024

IBEX Pay enables customers to accept bitcoin payments via the Lightning Network and convert them to fiat, according to the company’s website. The site says they can also save on fees, as the company charges a transaction fee of 0.5% to 1%.

It offers solutions for merchants’ point of sale, for eCommerce marketplaces, for donations and for sports, according to the site.

This move comes at a time when some prominent figures in tech have been saying that crypto payments will unlock scalable, real-world usability.

Jack Dorsey, chairman and co-founder of Block, said May 2 during the company’s quarterly earnings call that bitcoin would become the common protocol for the internet’s native currency.

“Artificial intelligence systems and agents will have to transact, and the most efficient way to do so will be a common protocol for money movement,” Dorsey said.

Brian Armstrong, co-founder and CEO of Coinbase, told investors May 2 that crypto payments were emerging as a key opportunity area.

“[We’re] driving utility in crypto,” Armstrong said. “We’re doing this through … building a better payments experience on crypto rails … getting us closer to our goal of having the average crypto transaction take less than one second and cost less than $0.01 anywhere in the world.”

In April, Stripe announced that it is re-entering the cryptocurrency payment space after a six-year hiatus, citing “real utility.”

“We’re excited to announce that we’re bringing back crypto as a way to accept payments, but this time with a much better experience,” Stripe President and Co-founder John Collison said at a company keynote. He added that Stripe will start supporting global stablecoin payments this summer, with transactions that instantly settle on-chain and convert automatically to fiat.