In brief

  • E-commerce platform Shopify set an all-time share price record on Friday.
  • The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed more and more shopping online.
  • Shopify’s platform accepts 300+ coins, plus the company is part of Facebook’s Libra Association.

The value of shares in crypto-friendly Canadian e-commerce platform Shopify has climbed in recent weeks as shelter-in-place orders during the coronavirus pandemic push everyday shoppers online.

Shopify shares hit an all-time peak price of $594 when stock markets closed on Friday, a 12.15% rise over the closing tally on Thursday. Shares closed last week at $417 but saw a steady climb all this week.

Jean-Michel Lemieux, Shopify’s chief technical officer, tweeted on Thursday that the company is consistently handling daily traffic similar to what is reliably the year’s biggest shopping day, Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving.

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“As we help thousands of businesses to move online, our platform is now handling Black Friday level traffic every day!” he tweeted alongside a chart showing steady traffic growth over the last month-plus. “It won't be long before traffic has doubled or more,” he added.

The 16-year-old company has provided e-commerce tools for more than one million businesses worldwide. It claims over $155 billion in total sales to date.

Crypto accepted here

The platform is also crypto-friendly: Shopify-based stores can accept over 300 different cryptocurrencies by enabling a payment processor, such as Coinbase Commerce or BitPay.

And Shopify joined Facebook’s Libra Association in February, signaling support for the upcoming stablecoin project.

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Just this week, the Libra Association published a new whitepaper that ushered in significant changes to its mission following regulatory backlash, including plans to launch fiat-backed stablecoins based on each of the world’s major currencies.

While the rest of the economy shuts down, crypto’s cruising along.

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