Bitcoin Payments Processor Coinify Expands to Europe

Bitcoin payments processor Coinify has been able to acquire is competition Coinzone, allowing it to expand its reach to the European market. Coinify is based in Denmark and has roughly 8,000 customers prior to the deal, which could bump it up to at least 10,000.

According to Coinify CFO Visti Larsen, he purchase comes as his firm is seeking to shift its focus from acquiring individual merchants to payment service providers (PSPs). He shared that Coinfiy plans to replicate a model invoked by its US peer Bitnet by partnering with larger entities that provide bitcoin payments processing support.

Bitcoin Payments To Rise?

“More merchants today do business with a PSP and would rather have multiple payment options through a PSP. Most of Coinzone’s partners were asking for this service, so it seemed like a perfect match,” said Larsen to CoinDesk.

As of the moment, Coinfiy is working with eight regional PSPs in the European continent to bring their business up to the level of Paypal or Stripe in the US. These websites already support bitcoin payments and Larsen believed that it was time for the European market to step up.

As for outgoing Coinzone CEO Manuel Heilmann, the firm’s existing management will go through a transition period in relation to the Coinify acquisition. He clarified that no executives will join Coinify in full-time roles. Heilmann himself shared that he is seeking to return to the e-commerce industry but will continue to support developments in bitcoin payments technology.

Coinzone was founded in 2014 and is based in Amsterdam. Its operations were mostly focused in Eastern Europe. Meanwhile, Coinify boasts of a team that has had experience working with digital currencies since 2010. The company offers seamless bitcoin payments integration on merchants’ online stores or terminals, allowing anyone to make purchases from anywhere in the world.