PornHub embraces Bitcoin, Litecoin

The leading website in the pornography industry, PornHub, announced that it now accepts Bitcoin and Litecoin as payment methods for its premium service subscription.

In a Sept. 1 tweet, PornHub announced that Bitcoin and Litecoin will be accepted as payment options for its premium subscription service. The PornHub website also features a promotional website promoting its offer of one week of free access to premium content with Litecoin and Bitcoin logos displayed as a full-screen background image.

According to data shared on PornHub’s website, its website averages to over 100 billion video views a year, equivalent to about 12.5 porn videos per person on earth. The firm also claims to see over a million daily visits, over 36 billion visits per year and 20 million registered users. According to site statistic service Alexa, PornHub is the 56th most viewed website on the internet.

The announcement follows the April 2018 PornHub partnership with privacy-oriented cryptocurrency Verge, which resulted in the coins being accepted by the website as a payment option. In November 2019, PayPal cut off payments to PornHub’s 100,000 webcam models, which resulted in the price of Verge rising by 33%.

In January, PornHub also started accepting Tether’s U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin USDT as a payment method. At the time the firm explained its decision:

“Since PayPal’s decision to stop payouts to thousands of Models two months ago, we’ve been hustling to start the new year on a good note and offer you more options to make things a little easier.”

The payments are managed by PornHub partner Probiller, which also offers its services to porn producer Brazzers and sex game provider Nutaku. Other currency options supported are the tokens of smart contract platform Tron and payment-focused crypto PumaPay.

Cryptocurrency acceptance increasing

The use of Bitcoin and especially altcoins as a payment method remains rather rare. Still, some announcements make the news from time to time.

Notably, in May 2019 cryptocurrency exchange Gemini announced a cryptocurrency wallet usable at Whole Foods and Baskin Robbins. It was also teased by eBay. In a weirder turn of events, in April 2018 a beef jerky firm announced support for Litecoin.