There are reports that Reddit will no longer allow its users to pay for their premium membership program, Reddit Gold, with bitcoin.
According to Coin Telegraph, an “upcoming Coinbase change” was cited in a March 23 Reddit post as the reason for the site’s reversal. And a Reddit user posted a video showing that the only payment options currently available are PayPal and credit card.
“The upcoming Coinbase change, combined with some bugs around the bitcoin payment option that were affecting purchases for certain users, led us to remove bitcoin as a payment option,” wrote Reddit user emoney40, a moderator of several subreddits.
Earlier this month, Coinbase posted on its Medium page that it was retiring Coinbase Merchant Tools and replacing it with Coinbase Commerce, a new service that allows merchants to accept multiple cryptocurrencies directly into a user-controlled wallet.
“We recently launched Coinbase Commerce, our new product designed specifically for merchants,” the company explained. “The response has been overwhelmingly positive and we’re extremely excited to continue building out the product to exceed our customer’s expectations. In light of this, we’ll be retiring Coinbase’s Merchant Tools product to focus on making Coinbase Commerce the best possible solution for online retailers.”
The company added that Coinbase Commerce can be directly integrated into a merchant’s checkout flow or as a payment option on an eCommerce platform. Merchants who utilize the service will be able to accept payments in bitcoin, bitcoin cash, Ethereum and Litecoin.
Coinbase acknowledged “that this decision may be disruptive to Coinbase Merchant Tool customers,” but was working to ensure a smooth transition.
On April 30, merchants that used Coinbase Merchant Tools will no longer have access to that product, and May 31 is the final date for the required switch to Coinbase Commerce.
As for Reddit, emoney40 pointed out that it’s unknown whether bitcoin will return as a payment option.
“We’re going to take a look at demand and watch the progression of Coinbase Commerce before making a decision on whether to re-enable.”
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