Digital currency Verge and other forms of cryptocurrency have seen a surge in pricing since April 17 in the wake of an announcement by Pornhub that it will now accept payments from it.

Monero, the world’s eleventh-largest cryptocurrency in terms of market capitalization, has seen a 12.1 percent gain in just the past 24-hours as of April 19 while Dash, Zcash, PIVX and other smaller cryptocurrencies that emphasize privacy and confidentiality also reported solid 24-hour gains in the aftermath of Mindgeek’s groundbreaking announcement.

According to Verge founder Justin Sunerok: ‘Pornhub is a global organization with nearly a hundred million daily users. This partnership represents an enormous market with a global reach that will compete with fiat currencies. It’s huge for Verge and we’re extremely excited to finally be able to announce it.’

Pornhub announced it was accepting the Verge cryptocurrency as payment on April 17, 2018

The new partnership between Verge and Pornhub, hinted at over the past few weeks, will offer users the option to pay for premium subscriptions with the untraceable digital currency. The news comes on the heels of a March crowdfunding campaign in which Verge targeted collecting 75 million worth of the cryptocurrency.

Corey Price, Pornhub’s vice president, hailed the new partnership as a way to both improve security and privacy as well as ensure that the adult entertainment industry stays at the cutting edge of new technologies, stating:

‘History has proven that the adult entertainment industry plays a critical role in adoption for innovative technology. We saw that with VHS, Betamax, credit card payment icons and, most recently, VR goggles. We expect to see widespread adoption of crypto and blockchain in short order.’

#VergeDay is upon us! Your favorite adult brands are now accepting @vergecurrency to pay for memberships +more and to celebrate we’re giving away over 300K $XVG! RT and follow @vergecurrency to WIN! #vergefam pic.twitter.com/32Rl2WOHMg — vergecurrency (@vergecurrency) April 17, 2018

Mindgeek’s decision to accept cryptocurrencies like Verge could be a watershed moment for the fledgling cryptocurrency market. It will also likely ensure that it stays at the vanguard of the digital adult entertainment industry, where users’ privacy and security are considered paramount. The adult entertainment giant currently derives a portion of its revenue from levying subscription fees on higher-quality video content.

The news also comes as a sigh of relief for the burgeoning cryptocurrency market, which in recent weeks has seen a crackdown by a number of influential Internet companies. In March, Google announced it was banning Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency advertising while payment processing company Stripe recently placed all virtual currencies on its list of prohibited businesses.

What is Verge?

Verge is a form of open-source, decentralized cryptocurrency that offers completely anonymous transactions by obscuring the geolocation and IP address of its users so that they’re untraceable.

It was first launched in 2014 as DogeCoinDark before being renamed as Verge Currency in 2016. Verge’s goal is to improve on Bitcoin’s blockchain system and ensure an efficient, decentralized way of making payments wile prioritizing personal privacy.