Avnet, one of the world’s largest distributors of electronic components and services, is now accepting cryptocurrency payments through a partnership with blockchain payments processor BitPay.
Announcing the news on Tuesday, the Fortune 500 firm said its customers can now pay in bitcoin (BTC) and bitcoin cash (BCH) for products and services, with BitPay then verifying and processing those payments.
“We’re working with BitPay to facilitate secure blockchain payments for all types of customers so they can focus on developing their products, not how to pay for them,” said Avnet vice president of demand creation Sunny Trinh.
Cryptocurrency payments can reduce the “time, cost and complexities of bringing products to market,” Avnet said, adding that it has already closed “several multi-million-dollar” cryptocurrency transactions within the first month of accepting cryptocurrency payments.
The news makes Avnet the third largest technology company in the U.S. (behind only Microsoft and Dell) to accept bitcoin payments, a spokesperson for Avnet told CoinDesk.
BitPay’s chief commercial officer, Sonny Singh, said:
“Not only is paying with bitcoin easier and faster than with credit cards and bank wires, it is less expensive and acceptance of it is growing.”
Avnet is also working with Bitcoin.com to develop a new hardware wallet to enable cryptocurrency storage and provide the “highest level of security” for transactions, according to the announcement.
In January, BitPay said it processed over $1 billion-worth of cryptocurrency transactions in 2018 for the second year in a row.
