Executive Summary
This week’s clearest Bitcoin-payments adoption signal combined enterprise checkout expansion with measurable retail spend. Square expanded Bitcoin payments across additional Square experiences (including Point of Sale and vertical-specific products), with “invoices next” flagged as the next step. In South Africa, Pick n Pay-linked data reported R1.4m in monthly bitcoin spend, with spend increasing across categories like clothing, data, airtime, and fuel. Policy activity also sharpened around reducing tax friction for everyday payments, with de minimis exemption advocacy surfacing in both the U.S. and Canada.
1) Merchant & Enterprise Adoption
Adoption signals are coming from both large checkout platforms and retail environments that can report repeatable consumer spend.
- Pick n Pay (South Africa): data shared this week cited customers spending R1.4m monthly in bitcoin, with growth across everyday categories (clothing, data, airtime, fuel).
- Square: Bitcoin payments are now available across more Square experiences, including Square Point of Sale, Square for Restaurants, Square for Retail, and Square Appointments.
- Block: Block is expanding its product marketing team for bitcoin across Square and Cash App (job posting shared publicly).
- Santa Cruz (Bolivia): a local update reported 21 merchants onboarded in 30 days.
2) Payment Infrastructure
Merchant-facing infrastructure is focusing on reliability, security hardening, and fundraising support.
- Branta positions its BTCPay-focused support as targeting address swap and man-in-the-middle vulnerabilities.
- Branta plugin (BTC.aw): the “Branta” plugin is available free for BTC.aw users
- PoW_Checkbot Integration: A new automated verification tool, PoW_Checkbot, has been introduced to streamline merchant confirmations for bitcoin accepting merchants across Africa. The bot provides real-time proof-of-work validation of participating Bitcoin Circular Economies who are onboarding merchants to build out their circular economies.
3) Usage Metrics
Reported usage is pairing payment counts with community throughput (transactions) and sustained education/onboarding activity.
- Calabar Bitcoin Club (Nigeria): reported 3,954+ transactions via wallets/apps including Blink, Wallet of Satoshi, and iPayBTC, alongside 14 meetups and 4 education cohorts.
- The same update reported 13 merchants accepting BTC, supported by 12 dedicated volunteers and 65+ hours teaching Bitcoin.
- According to the South African retail giant, Pick n Pay customers collectively spent a monthly average of R1.4 million in cryptocurrency over the past 12 months, across its retail stores nationwide.
4) Regulatory & Policy Developments
Policy efforts this week centered on de minimis exemptions—explicitly framed as important for Bitcoin payments.
- U.S.: Bitcoin Policy Institute reported sending a letter to Senate Finance and House Ways and Means urging de minimis exemptions for Bitcoin payments, alongside other digital asset organizations and companies.
- Canada: Bitcoin Coalition highlighted parallel urgency and said it is emphasizing with Canadian parties the need for an initial $10K exemption, linking to its news release.
5) Strategic Outlook
Across the stack—checkout distribution, merchant tooling, and tax treatment—the week’s updates point to Bitcoin payments maturing through operational follow-through (not one-off acceptance claims).
- Distribution: Square’s expansion of Bitcoin payments across multiple Square products increases the number of merchant contexts where bitcoin checkout can be enabled.
- Repeatability: Pick n Pay-linked reporting of R1.4m/month in bitcoin spend, with growth across daily-use categories, is a concrete signal of recurring consumer usage.
- Operational resilience: BTCPay Server’s v2.3.3 update addresses rate-provider continuity (CoinGecko discontinuation) and automates store migration to alternatives BtcpayServer, while Branta emphasizes mitigations against address swap and man-in-the-middle risks.
- Policy fit: de minimis exemption advocacy in the U.S. and Canada directly targets a known friction point for routine payments activity.
Taken together, this week’s signals underline a coherent long-term trajectory for Bitcoin as a payment rail: broader merchant distribution via major platforms, evidence of real consumer spend in large retail settings, continued improvements to merchant infrastructure and security, and policy work aimed at making everyday transactions simpler to execute and report.
