Spiral: Weak Bitcoin Payment Demand Rather Than Technical Limitations

On October 28, according to BeInCrypto, Spiral, the Bitcoin development team under Jack Dorsey's Block, stated that the primary challenge facing Bitcoin payments is weak demand rather than technological shortcomings. Spiral noted that the Lightning Network is already in production, with over one million merchants in the U.S. able to accept Bitcoin via Square, yet actual usage remains low. Federal Reserve data shows that in 2025, 9% of U.S. adults purchase or hold crypto assets for investment purposes, while only 2% use them for payments, a figure that has remained between 1% and 2% annually since 2021. Spiral pointed out that Stripe, Shopify, and Coinbase are integrating stablecoins, with approximately 99% of payments processed through Coinbase's AI agent payment protocol x402 settled in USDC. On October 27, Spiral publicly called for proposals aimed at increasing Bitcoin payment adoption within five years.