The president and chief executive officer of Ebay, Jamie Iannone, discussed the possibility of digital currency acceptance on the online auction website and non-fungible token (NFT) sales in a recent interview published on February 27. Iannone stressed that currently, Ebay doesn’t accept cryptocurrencies but in March, the company plans to go “deeper on all of these things, payments, advertising, our focus categories.”
Ebay CEO Jamie Iannone: “Without any official announcement, people have started trading NFTs on the platform”
There are a few e-commerce giants such as Amazon and Ebay, which crypto proponents hope will one day support cryptocurrency payments in the future. Ebay has been the topic of conversation for years, as crypto advocates believe the digital assets and the online auction platform would be very beneficial to each other. On May 11, 2021, Bitcoin.com News reported on Ebay allowing NFT sales on the auction site. During his interview with The Street, Ebay CEO Jamie Iannone explained that NFT sales just happened without much thought.
“We did change our policies last year so that you could trade NFT on the platform and essentially, you know, Ebay is a place where people have something to sell and people have something by show up,” Iannone said. “Even without announcing anything or doing anything, people started trading NFTs on the platform. It reminded me of many years ago when people just started selling cars when we didn’t even have a vehicle business at that point. So we’re seeing the same type of thing,” the Ebay executive said.
Ebay will take a closer look at alternative payments in March
The Ebay CEO interview then turned to accepting digital currency and Iannone pointed out that the company continues to “evaluate other forms of payment that we should adopt on the platform” . Iannone clarified that the company focuses on youth and trends like the collectible sneaker industry. After being asked about crypto acceptance, Iannone remarked that “[Ebay is] currently does not accept crypto. However, the CEO of the auction site added:
On March 10, we’re going to go deeper on all of these things, payments, advertising, our focus categories.
Ebay continues to be a giant in the world of online sales with $10.27 billion in revenue recorded in 2020. Revenue is significant but well below the $386.1 billion Amazon raked in that year . Iannone concluded that Ebay will continue to be a top business where people trade goods online. “Ebay will be where people exchange goods, whether physical or digital,” Iannone explained. “So over time, you know, we want it to be the sustainability market.”
