Microsoft quietly drops bitcoin support

Microsoft has quietly stopped supporting bitcoin payments just over one year after it added support for the crypto currency within the Windows Store. Software encyclopedia Softpedia first noticed the change, which is confirmed in an FAQ note for customers: "You can no longer redeem Bitcoin into your Microsoft account. Existing balances in your account will still be available for purchases from Microsoft Store, but can’t be refunded."

Techchrunch contacted Microsoft for further details, but did not hear back from the company at the time of writing. (We’ll let you know what the company says if it has a public statement on this.)

Microsoft was lauded for adopting bitcoin back at the end of 2014. The company, which partnered with payment firm Bitpay, said at the time that the move was a sign of “giving people options and helping them do more on their devices and in the cloud.”

It isn’t clear what has happened since then, presumably few Microsoft customers used the payment option which made its retention unnecessary.