Tech giant Microsoft has announced that its online store is longer accepting Bitcoin as a payment method and that this applies to Windows 10 and Windows 10 Mobile.

"You can no longer redeem Bitcoin into your Microsoft account," the online post reads. "Existing balances in your account will still be available for purchases from Microsoft Store, but can't be refunded."

In late 2014, the company started accepting bitcoin payments on its Windows, Windows Phone and Xbox stores. Microsoft partnered with bitcoin payment processor BitPay to offer this additional payment option to its customers.

“The use of digital currencies such as bitcoin, while not yet mainstream, is growing beyond the early enthusiasts. We expect this growth to continue and allowing people to use bitcoin to purchase our products and services now allows us to be at the front edge of that trend,” Eric Lockard, corporate vice president of Universal Store at Microsoft, said at the time.

While no official word has been received from Microsoft that led it to this decision, speculations suggest that small amount of bitcoin transactions could be the reason.

“[M]ost likely, the number of transactions based on Bitcoin and performed in the store was probably very small, and Microsoft had no reason to continue keeping it as a supported digital currency”, Softpedia wrote.

Microsoft was one of the largest companies to support bitcoin payments and the latest development will be quite disheartening for bitcoin enthusiasts.