Spiral: Weak Demand, Not Technical Limitations, Hinders Bitcoin Payments

TechFlow reported on Oct. 28, citing BeInCrypto, that Spiral, the Bitcoin development team at Jack Dorsey's Block, said the main problem facing Bitcoin payments is weak demand rather than insufficient technology. Spiral said the Lightning Network is live in production and more than 1 million merchants in the U.S. can accept Bitcoin through Square, but actual usage remains very low. Federal Reserve data showed that in 2025, 9% of U.S. adults bought or held crypto assets as investments, while only 2% used them for payments, and that payment share has remained between 1% and 2% each year since 2021. Spiral noted that Stripe, Shopify, and Coinbase are integrating stablecoins, and that about 99% of payments on Coinbase's AI agent payment protocol x402 are settled in USDC. On Oct. 27, Spiral issued a public call for proposals to increase Bitcoin payment adoption within five years.

Source: TechFlow