eBay’s Confusing Advertising Sparked Rumors of Accepting Cryptocurrencies

Major e-commerce platform eBay denied rumors regarding accepting cryptocurrency as a payment method after it made placed some misleading ads.

The company placed several ads at the Consensus conference in New York City, a crypto-related event, which sparked rumors that the e-commerce platform might start to accept cryptocurrencies.

 “Virtual Currency. It’s happening on eBay.”-read one of the billboards.

Source: Micky

It has been speculated that the increase in crypto prices we have seen this week has been in some part due to eBay’s possible integration of crypto payments.

“The world’s largest marketplace,” as eBay marketed itself at the conference, would have greatly furthered the mainstream adoption of cryptocurrencies if they were to integrate digital currencies in their payment methods. However, these speculations were denied by an official eBay spokesperson:

“Cryptocurrency is not accepted as a form of payment on the eBay platform, nor is it part of our payments strategy.”

There is a Virtual Currency section on the platform which is for people looking to buy cryptocurrencies with fiat currency.

Another rumor that rattled the crypto community was made in April by TD Ameritrade, worth an estimated $1.3 trillion in assets, posted a Tweet that it was trialing bitcoin (BTC) and litecoin (LTC) spot trading on its platform.

But this speculation also was denied by Sunayna Tuteja, TD Ameritrade head of digital assets:

“Currently we’re not. We have what we call paperMoney, which is what our clients can try for trading strategies. It was a simulation. So there was no actual execution.”

On the other hand, there have been several major brands that have confirmed that they will be implementing crypto payments for their services. Whole Foods Market, Barnes & Noble and Bed Bath & Beyond were the companies that confirmed at the Consensus conference that they will partner with Spedn, an app that enables crypto transactions via the Flexa network.

Featured Image: USA Today