‘Lack of Interest’: Freelance Market Fiverr Drops Bitcoin Payments

Coins-1
23 January 2017

Freelancer marketplace Fiverr has discontinued bitcoin payments, citing a lack of interest.

The marketplace made headlines in early 2014 when it partnered with Coinbase. At the time, the company said that it “will be in the forefront of marketplaces embracing this new digital currency and security standards”.

Nearly three years later, the marketplace is calling it quits.

Redditors spotted the change over the weekend, highlighting how Fiverr had dropped bitcoin as a payment option. An email reportedly distributed to users suggested that the move was effective 19th January.

When reached for comment, senior PR manager Sam Katzen confirmed that Fiverr was dropping the option.

He told CoinDesk:

“Our removal of bitcoin as a payment option was due to an unfortunate lack of interest.”

Launched in 2010, Fiverr enables job outsourcing, with gigs being offered for contracts as low as $5. When it first adopted bitcoin payments, Fiverr joined a nascent yet promising ecosystem for freelancing, which included companies like Coinality and a subreddit dedicated to the use case.

Image via Shutterstock