http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-42798935Stripe, the firm which helps more than 100,000 businesses do financial transactions online, is to scrap support for Bitcoin payments.
It said Bitcoin users now saw the virtual currency largely as an "asset" to be traded, rather than something to make payments with.
Fewer online merchants wanted to accept the cryptocurrency, it added.
Rising fees and longer transaction times as a result of price fluctuations also lessened its appeal, Stripe said.
Customers of the US-based payments firm pay a fee to Stripe each time it processes a payment. Clients include Lyft, Deliveroo, Grab and Target.
In 2014, it became the first major payments company to support Bitcoin payments.
At the time Stripe said it hoped Bitcoin would become a way for people in places with low credit card penetration or prohibitively high credit card fees to do transactions online.
But the virtual currency was now "better-suited to being an asset than being a means of exchange," it said.
