African Crypto Startup, Basqet Launches Payment Gateway to Enable Businesses Accept Bitcoin

Basqet, a blockchain payments company, has announced the launch of its cryptocurrency payments gateway, which will allow businesses to accept Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as payment.

The company said that as part of its strategy to drive cryptocurrency adoption, it will launch a public test and go live with 118 firms that signed up and agreed to start accepting bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as payment.

Prior to the beta launch, the Basqet team reported that they had completed around $1.3 million in transactions with a small number of enterprises.

According to Bunmi Eleshin, Senior Product Manager at Basqet, "we are creating a missing link between people who hold cryptocurrency and businesses who want to accept crypto as a means of payment. And we are doing it without merchants having to experience a loss due to crypto’s price volatility".

Basqet believes that its presence in the crypto space will help accelerate cryptocurrency adoption as an effective payment tool for goods and services, while still maintaining its enviable position as a hedge against inflation and currency devaluation.

Despite the fact that price volatility is a deterrent to cryptocurrency adoption, Basqet believes that its model of allowing merchants to accept cryptocurrencies as payment and be settled in US dollars, cryptocurrency, and over 5 other local African currencies will help hedge against cryptocurrency volatility.

So, if a merchant sells a product for $20, they will always get the same value in the currency of their choice, regardless of the volatility of cryptocurrency prices.

Cryptocurrency payment gateways such as Basqet are similar to Stripe in the United States, as well as Flutterwave and Paystack in Africa, but for crypto.

They have the ability to enable freelancers, company owners, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and fintech in over 120 countries to accept various cryptos as gifts, payments, or deposits.

They could also help to cut transaction fees by more than 60% with no chargebacks.

Basqet's developers also announced that during its beta launch, retailers would be able to accept cryptos such as USDT, Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin, with numerous more to be introduced in the coming weeks.

Merchants that sign up for Basqet's beta launch will have three options for accepting cryptocurrency: a payment link, a payment button, and the Basqet API.

Basqet stated in its press release that businesses can accept cryptocurrency payments even if they do not have a website. It just takes a business 10 minutes to sign up, produce a payment link, and give it to their customer via WhatsApp, Instagram, or any other channel.

Basqet objective is to help bridge the cryptocurrency divide by allowing African companies a cryptocurrency payment gateway via which they may accept cryptocurrency payments and get paid in US dollars and their local currencies.