Ripple executive Reece Merrick has compared today’s crypto payment market to online retail in 2000, when e-commerce represented roughly 0.2% of global retail sales and consumer trust in internet transactions remained minimal, he posted on X. The comparison frames crypto payments as early-stage infrastructure rather than a failed experiment. Infrastructure Parallels Between Eras “In 2000, the dot-com bubble was bursting and buying things online was globally negligible,” Merrick wrote in the post. He added that consumers did not yet trust the web with their money, even though the systems behind online shopping were ... (full story)