Valve Removes Bitcoin Payment Option From Steam

Back in April of last year, the mammoth digital gaming platform Steam began accepting Bitcoins as a form of payment. Now that the cryptocurrency has ballooned and plummeted in value, the digital distributor is removing the payment option from their platform.

Valve notes that the “transaction fees that are charged to the customer by the Bitcoin network have skyrocketed this year, topping out at close to $20 a transaction last week.” They also noted that this is a massive increase when compared to the rate when they initially accepted the currency, which was $.20 per transaction.


The company said that the have no control over the amount of the fee, and that the fees result in unreasonably high costs for purchasing games with the cryptocurrency. While the overall value of Bitcoin has skyrocketed in the past year or so, Valve cites an incident where Bitcoin lost 25% of its value in a few days, only to regain it later.

“We may re-evaluate whether Bitcoin makes sense for us and for the Steam community at a later date,” Valve said. “We will continue working to resolve any pending issues for customers who are impacted by existing underpayments or transaction fees.”

Do you use Bitcoin? If not, have you ever considered buying into the cryptocurrency? Sound off in the comments below!

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