Don't want to trade it yourself?
Our desk runs DEX portfolios on profit share.
Spiral, Block’s open-source Bitcoin development organization, said weak demand rather than technological limitations is the main factor holding back broader BTC payment adoption.
In a report published on GitHub, Spiral said payment technology such as the Lightning Network and BTC wallets has advanced significantly over the past seven years, but daily BTC usage remains limited. Holders tend to avoid spending BTC as they expect its price to rise, while merchants have little incentive to adopt BTC payments because consumer demand is low.
Spiral also said major payment companies such as Stripe and Shopify are adopting stablecoins instead of BTC, while payment protocols for AI agents are effectively being built on stablecoins. If those payment methods become established in the market, BTC could face greater difficulty entering later, Spiral said.
To boost BTC payment adoption, Spiral proposed supporting both BTC and dollar-denominated payments on the Lightning Network, targeting BTC payment demand in countries with unstable currencies, offering discounts and rewards for BTC payments, and developing new use cases such as micropayments based on AI service usage. Spiral also called on developers and payment companies to share additional ideas and relevant data.