Steam No Longer Accepts Bitcoin For Video Game Purchase

Even though Bitcoin is continuing to skyrocket in value, at least one prominent tech entity is jumping off the crypto bandwagon instead of on it. Valve just announced that it would no longer accept the digital currency on its video game distribution platform Steam. This was apparently due to the volatility of Bitcoin, as well as the high fees that it incurs.

Steam has been accepting Bitcoin as payment from shoppers who buy video games and other digital contents from the store for a while now. In a recent announcement post, Valve noted how the past few months have seen a steep rise in the transaction fees, in particular. Since it started accepting the currency, for example, the fee has risen from $0.20 to $20.

Valve points out that it has absolutely no control over the amount of the fee. The company is also pointing to the volatility that the currency has shown, particularly since the start of the year.

“These fees result in unreasonably high costs for purchasing games when paying with Bitcoin. The high transaction fees cause even greater problems when the value of Bitcoin itself drops dramatically,” the post reads.

“Historically, the value of Bitcoin has been volatile, but the degree of volatility has become extreme in the last few months, losing as much as 25% in value over a period of days. This creates a problem for customers trying to purchase games with Bitcoin.”

As Gamespot notes, Bitcoin’s value recently surpassed $13,000, but the price shifts significantly more often than any other currency. This makes it particularly difficult to support for platforms like Steam, which needs to keep its fees and prices stable. In the current situation, Valve is having a hard time managing the transactions of people who are paying with Bitcoin due to how often the price changes.