2018 was a very good year for BitPay, the global blockchain payments provider, as it earned record revenue off $1 billion in transactions.

2018 is one year that many cryptocurrency enthusiasts are glad to put behind them. The year started off with tremendous promise as many coins were close to their all-time highs, but then the bottom fell out of the market. The value of coins plunged, some dropping by 80 percent or more. However, BitPay has a different view of the year as the blockchain payments provider scored record revenue.

2018 Very Good for BitPay

While cryptocurrency exchanges deal with retail customers, BitPay’s focus is on business-to-business (B2B), and business was definitely good. The payments provider processed over $1 billion in transactions last year, which led to a record year for overall transaction fee revenue.

This all-time high in revenue was helped by the increasing adoption of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. BitPay notes that new customers like HackerOne, Dish Networks, and the U.S. state of Ohio helped bolster the bottom line. Other new clients included law firms, IT vendors, and data center providers, which led to a staggering 255 percent revenue increase from the previous year.

CEO Stephen Pair says:

BitPay’s B2B business continues to grow rapidly as our solution is cheaper and quicker than a bank wire from most regions of the world. To process over a $1 Billion for a second year in a row despite Bitcoin’s large price drop shows that Bitcoin is being used to solve real pain points around the world.

Continuing Growth

While naysayers continue to downplay the growing adoption and importance of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology, the success of BitPay refutes that viewpoint. As their business model is B2B, the banner year they enjoyed shows that more and more businesses are joining the crypto/blockchain bandwagon.

The payments provider also noted that they expanded their workforce by 78 percent over the last year, now employing almost 80 people. The company also snagged Rolf Haag, a former executive for PayPal and Western Union, to become the Head of Industry Solutions.

As for their successful year catering to businesses, Sean Rolland, Head of Product for the company, notes:

The adoption of support for Payment Protocol wallets has made a big difference for our merchants. Merchants are now able to easily accept Bitcoin payments in a simple easy way without any support issues. This was our biggest request by our enterprise merchants.

The company added support for Bitcoin Cash and stablecoins from Paxos, Gemini, and Circle. However, BitPay is still focused on Bitcoin as Rolland states:

Bitcoin has the network effect around the world and we are still extremely bullish on Bitcoin and the Bitcoin ecosystem.

Do you think payments providers focusing on cryptocurrencies will have another tremendous year in 2019? Let us know in the comments below.

Images courtesy of Twitter/@BitPay, Shutterstock, and Pexels.