Bitcoin Merchant Resilience Amid Pandemic Surprises Analysts

Analysts are surprised by the resilience of the bitcoin (BTC) merchant services, as well as by the lower drop in purchasing than expected. Furthermore, each of the three categories they inspected, reacted in their own way to the coronavirus-caused economic crisis.

Blockchain and analytics specialist Chainalysis observed the effects of COVID-19 pandemic on the consumer side of bitcoin – on those people who use their BTC to buy goods and services, instead just to speculate. They looked at three service categories – merchant services, gambling services, and darknet markets – to observe the change of transaction patterns.

Chainalysis discovered that the amount of BTC being used in all three service categories dropped “significantly” since March 9, the week of the market crash, but not in an expected way. While spending less in a financial crisis sounds logical, the longer-term trends suggest that this is actually unexpected behavior.