With credit card firms making a fee for facilitating the payments sent to merchants, crypto is reportedly on the brink of becoming the next viable alternative. 

Specifically, credit card heavyweights VISA and Mastercard are reportedly looking to implement a charge based on the payment sent to merchants, which they refer to as interchange fees or swipe fees. 

“Though invisible to consumers, they [interchange fees] are glaring to merchants, which often end up paying fees of about 2% of their customers’ credit-card purchases. The fees are set by the card networks, such as Visa and Mastercard. Merchants pay them to the banks that issue the cards.”

Should this development be officially rolled out, merchants will reportedly be likely to eye other measures to conduct their payment transfer, and crypto is one of them. 

There is a transfer charge applied on crypto assets, but the price could be lower, making it an overall most cost-efficient measure, compared to the existing credit card method, particularly should card fees keep on increasing. 

Bitcoin (BTC), in general, has reportedly received an extensive amount of criticism, regarding its transaction fees, which appears to restrict it from ever establishing itself as a viable payment measure for day-to-day purchases. 

Many, however, entirely disregard the costs which merchants experienced, via accepting payment facilitated by debit or credit cards. 

A few nominal solutions like Bitcoin’s Lightning Network are reportedly also available, enhancing Bitcoin transaction fees and speeds. 

Crypto assets reportedly do not require any paper involved, giving it the flexibility of being utilized across online channels and in person. They can also have extra advantages nominally decentralization.