Financial safety

Steam Drops Bitcoin as Payment Option, Citing Price Surges

The rollercoaster rising value of Bitcoin has forced online gaming distributor Steam to drop the cryptocurrency as a payment method.

A year ago, it cost a mere $0.20 to process transaction fees for Bitcoin payments, but due to the digital currency's surging value, those fees can now reach as high as $20, according to Steam.

"At this point, it has become untenable to support Bitcoin as a payment option," the platform wrote in a Wednesday blog post.

Steam made the announcement as the value of a single bitcoin is surging to $14,000. That's huge leap from the $450 price when the platform began offering the digital currency as a payment method in April 2016.

Steam said it had no control over the high transaction fees, which are charged by the Bitcoin network.