Payment Services Provider Aliant Introduces Free Crypto Processing to Some Merchants

United States merchant services provider and payment processing firm Aliant Payments has announced it will offer free crypto transaction processing to some merchants, according to a press release Jan. 29.

Aliant’s crypto processing product for merchants, dubbed CryptoBucks, was launched in 2017. As the firm announced today, free crypto processing via the platform is now available “to qualifying merchants that sign up for debit and credit card processing.” The company clarified that the merchants must be located in the U.S. or Europe.

According to the press release, Aliant has partnered with a publicly traded domestic bank, assuring its customers that transactions are compliant with federal laws and regulations, as well as Know Your Customer and Anti-Money Laundering rules.

The company’s CEO, Eric Brown, made a bullish statement on crypto in the press release, stating, “[a]fter experiencing such a simple, low-cost, and no-risk payment option, we're confident they [merchants] won't look back.”

Brown also said that the company’s goal is to “make cryptocurrency every merchant's favorite form of payment.”

As Cointelegraph previously reported, major global payments firm Western Union is also considering launching crypto payments. The president of Western Union Global Money Transfer told reporters in December that the firm will consider supporting crypto once it has achieved mass adoption, namely by solving problems with volatility, governance and compliance.

Blockchain technology firm Bitfury Group has recently launched e-commerce software for merchants and several other tools — such as an open source Bitcoin (BTC) wallet and a hardware payments terminal — in order to drive wider adoption of the Lightning Network.