Tripe, the firm which helps firms do financial transactions online, is to stop supporting Bitcoin payments.

Stripe originally hoped Bitcoin would help people up their credit card scores or high credit card fees to do transactions online.

Despite this, it now believes Bitcoin is being misused, as users see it as an “asset to trade”, other than something to make payments with.

The firm will be working with its users to “ensure a smooth transition” before it stops processing Bitcoin transactions on 23 April 2018.

Stripe’s product manager Tom Karlo said in his blog: “Over the past year or two, as block size limits have been reached, Bitcoin has evolved to become better-suited to being an asset than being a means of exchange.

‘Revenues from Bitcoin decline’

“Given the overall success that the Bitcoin community has achieved, it’s hard to quibble with the decisions that have been made along the way.

“This has led to Bitcoin becoming less useful for payments, however. Transaction confirmation times have risen substantially; this, in turn, has led to an increase in the failure rate of transactions denominated in fiat currencies.

“Because of this, we’ve seen the desire from our customers to accept Bitcoin decrease. And of the businesses that are accepting Bitcoin on Stripe, we’ve seen their revenues from Bitcoin decline substantially.”

Tripes clients include Lyft, Deliveroo, Grab and Target.

Written by Leah Alger