BitPay Cuts Its ‘Free and Unlimited’ Plan for New Merchants, Reduces Staff

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by Polina Chernykh · 3 min read
BitPay Cuts Its ‘Free and Unlimited’ Plan for New Merchants, Reduces Staff
Nic Cary, co-founder of Blockchain and Youth Business USA, and Tony Gallippi, co-founder and executive chairman of BitPay. Photo: Nic Cary/Twitter

BitPay has introduced changes to its payment platform, following a hacker attack and rumors about the staff lay-offs.

Update: Bitcoin payment processor Bitpay is cutting back staff in order to reduce costs. It is thought 20 roles will be made redundant. The news was announced to company staff via an email from chief executive Stephen Pair:

“It saddens me to have to deliver this news as it has been an honor to get to know each and every one of you and my privilege to work with you. And I know [executive chairman] Tony [Gallippi] feels the same way.”

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Bitcoin processing company BitPay has announced some new changes to its platform that will make cryptocurrency payments easier for its users. As part of the improvements, the company will stop offering its “unlimited” starter plan for new merchants.

The new Starter Plan, writes BitPay CEO Tony Gallippi in the company’s blog post, will not affect small businesses accepting payments through the system, as it will still be free for up to 30 transactions per month and $1,000 per day. Small companies will now be able to incorporate bitcoin payments on their sites for free and will get an access to a simplified refund and invoice adjustment flow and an improved payment platform.

Those merchants, who process more than 30 transactions per month, will be charged a 1% fee for additional transactions. The company has also expanded the range of countries where the bank settlements can be carried out.

“We rely on banking and settlement partners to perform this service, and many banking systems have higher settlement costs. Starting October 1, merchants on the Starter plan will receive free weekly settlements in US Dollars via ACH, or Euros via SEPA transfer. Daily bank settlements, and settlements to other banking systems, will be offered to merchants on our Business plan. Funds settled in bitcoin will be settled daily,” the company stated.

BitPay will also move its Business plan to a usage-based 1% model, as the previous fixed $300 monthly subscription fee proved to be an obstacle to entry for larger companies. Additionally, Business Plan merchants will get an access to a simplified refund and invoice adjustment capability, hosted integrations, payment dashboard improvements and a multi-user login.

“The new plan will lower the risk of experimenting with bitcoin acceptance for mid-sized businesses, while enabling our team to better focus on Business plan merchants,” BitPay said.

The merchants on BitPay’s Enterprise Plan will continue to get first access to new features and receive priority service and support. The plan’s customized contract pricing will not be subject to any changes. Enterprise Plan offers such options as an account manager for customer support, unlimited transactions processing and daily and premium settlement options.

The changes come after BitPay was attacked by hackers. Under a lawsuit, filed in Atlanta federal court on September 15, the criminals stole an email account of the company’s chief financial officer, Bryan Krohn, and tricked him to pay them $1.8 million in bitcoin.

According to the unconfirmed data, just after introducing the changes to its platform, BitPay laid off some of its employees, who were witnessed leaving the Atlanta office in tears.

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