Bitcoin Forum

Analysts are surprised by the resilience of the bitcoin (BTC) merchant services, as well as by the lower drop in purchasing than expected. Furthermore, each of the three categories they inspected, reacted in their own way to the coronavirus-caused economic crisis.

Blockchain and analytics specialist Chainalysis observed the effects of COVID-19 pandemic on the consumer side of bitcoin - on those people who use their BTC to buy goods and services, instead just to speculate. They looked at three service categories - merchant services, gambling services, and darknet markets - to observe the change of transaction patterns.

Chainalysis discovered that the amount of BTC being used in all three service categories dropped "significantly" since March 9, the week of the market crash, but not in an expected way. While spending less in a financial crisis sounds logical, the longer-term trends suggest that this is actually unexpected behavior.

https://cryptonews.com/news/bitcoin-merchant-resilience-amid-pandemic-surprises-analysts-6190.htm

https://cimg.co/w/articles-attachments/3/5e8/5b3c0abb34.png

Probably because the markets involved are not that mainstream. They are serving a more specific niche or clientele or probably offering limited categories of goods and services that are less affected by the crisis. For example, I cannot see a necessary huge drop in crypto gambling despite the presence of COVID-19. Of course, sports betting is falling hard because most of sports matches are cancelled or postponed. That must be one reason for the drop but then the rest of the market shouldn't be affected. As a matter of fact, it could increase due to the policy of staying at home and the closure of land-based casinos.

What about several million people facing the prospect of no income? Unless you're a total degenerate, and there must be plenty of them, you're not going to continue gambling if you're wondering how you're going to manage to feed yourself.

Similarly I presume the lower than expected dip in merchant stuff is people buying necessities.

I'm not sure what they're doing in Europe, but this covers a lot of them on this side of the Atlantic:
Ottawa to send $2,000 per month to COVID-19-affected Canadians (https://nationalpost.com/news/ottawa-to-send-2000-per-month-to-covid-19-affected-canadians-but-will-the-system-be-able-to-keep-up)
Unemployed workers could get more than 100% of their paycheck under the coronavirus bill (https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/27/how-unemployed-workers-could-get-more-than-100percent-of-their-paycheck.html)

Those who qualify for unemployment benefits should do just fine. A lot of people who don't need stimulus money are about to get a $1,200 check too. I think a lot depends on how long these layoffs and quarantines actually last. That question doesn't have a firm answer.

I must be assuming that those who are spending much money in gambling are those people who are not at the economic bottom of the society. A month-long lockdown might not really make them a total destitute. On the other hand, those who are daily wage earners will have to minimize, if not stop altogether, their gambling habit. I suppose the main revenue of gambling sites do not come from small time rollers who often just resort to faucets whenever their wallets are emptied earlier than usual. But then, as squatter have pointed out above, there are initiatives done by different countries, their labor departments or agencies, and even their private employers to somehow maintain the workforce's income despite the crisis.

Where I'm at the ONLY places that are awash with betting shops are the the shittiest areas. I've driven through some places where there were more of them than conventional stores. Maybe it's a totally different demographic online.

The populations lucky enough to get some sort of government bailout will still have a big reduction in income and a lot of uncertainty ahead. Even if my head remained above water if my lovely wife refused to give up the gambling she'd be told to go self isolate somewhere else for good.

Economic crises are linked to each other and therefore it is wrong to judge them independently. using BTC as payment is due to many non-economic reasons.
You have a home quarantine, fear of the future, interruption of shipping operations, interruption of a lot of life (matches, events, conflicts) in addition to losing many of their jobs. A large portion of these may spend BTC to buy the goods, gaming, dark others.

Big whales and others who have a lot of money investing instead of buying basics.