ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--BitPay, the largest global blockchain payments provider, today announced OneGold, a marketplace to securely and conveniently buy, sell and redeem digital gold and other precious metals founded by APMEX and Sprott, is accepting Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash. The OneGold online marketplace is designed for investors and combines the key benefits of physical gold and silver with those of blockchain-based digital assets.
“Cryptocurrency is an ideal payment method for ecommerce and precious metals where the risk of chargebacks, fraud and identity theft with traditional credit cards is high,” said Sonny Singh, Chief Commercial Officer at BitPay. “BitPay and APMEX have worked together for years, making it easy for APMEX to accept cryptocurrency. When they started OneGold, we were ready to help them accept Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash through BitPay.”
One of the biggest challenges merchants have is credit card chargebacks. For online merchants this is increased with the added risk of identity theft and fraud. Credit card chargebacks cost merchants almost $19 billion in 2017. Cryptocurrency provides transactional transparency as every transaction is verified, recorded and stored on the blockchain. The transaction itself contains no sensitive information. Furthermore, as each cryptocurrency payment is a push transaction, similar to taking cash out of a wallet, the user sends the exact amount of Bitcoin needed to pay the bill, eliminating the traditional fraud and identity theft risks associated with credit cards. As a result, there are no chargebacks.
Using BitPay, OneGold is protected from any Bitcoin price volatility and has the option to take cryptocurrency or fiat currency or a combination of the two. If the organization chooses to take 100% fiat currency, funds are deposited into the organization’s bank account the next business day, minus a 1% fee BitPay charges for the entire process.
“In addition to helping protect our own interests, adding Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash to the payment options for OneGold also increases our payment transparency and efficiency,” said Ken Lewis, Chief Executive Officer at OneGold. “We anticipate a large number of cryptocurrency buyers from international markets, where accepting credit cards is not always practical.”
APMEX is a leading precious metals e-retailer, with more than $10 billion in sales and 1.5 million customers. Sprott is an alternative asset manager and a global leader in precious metal and real-asset investing with more than $7.5 billion under management.
OneGold uses VaultChain™, a secure, immutable blockchain ledger. The VaultChain™ Gold and VaultChain™ Silver digital precious metals products available through OneGold are fully allocated to physical metals held at the Royal Canadian Mint, a Federal Crown Corporation of the Government of Canada. All digital precious metals are 100% redeemable online through OneGold for physical precious metals, from 1 gram to thousands of ounces, delivered to customers’ doors with only a few clicks. All online redemption orders are fulfilled by APMEX.
About APMEX, Inc.
For more than 15 years, APMEX has been one of the nation's largest Precious Metals e-retailers, boasting over $10 billion in transactions. APMEX has the largest selection of bullion and numismatic items provided by a retailer, boasting more than 10,000 products. Product offerings include all U.S. Mint bullion such as Gold, Silver and Platinum American Eagle coins. APMEX also sells products from leading mints around the world including The Royal Mint, Perth Mint, Royal Canadian Mint and many others. APMEX is a member of the American Numismatic Association, the International Precious Metals Institute and the Industry Council for Tangible Assets. For additional information, visit www.APMEX.com or call (800) 375-9006.
About BitPay
Founded in 2011, BitPay is the pioneer and the most experienced company in bitcoin and blockchain payments. Its suite of products enables businesses to send and receive cross border payments, also enabling consumers to manage digital assets with the BitPay Wallet and turn digital assets into dollars with the BitPay Prepaid Visa® Card. The company has offices in North America, Europe, and South America and has raised over $70 million from leading investors including Founders Fund, Index Ventures and Aquiline Technology Growth. For more information visit https://bitpay.com.
The BitPay Visa® Prepaid Card is issued by Metropolitan Commercial Bank, member FDIC, pursuant to a license from Visa, U.S.A. Inc. “Metropolitan” and “Metropolitan Commercial Bank” are registered trademarks of Metropolitan Commercial Bank © 2014. Use of the Card is subject to the terms and conditions of the applicable Cardholder Agreement and fee schedule, if any.
