Cointelegraph Research: Valuing a crypto payment token

cointelegraph.com:

For payment tokens such as Alchemy Pay’s ACH, there may not necessarily be a world where cryptocurrencies are widely accepted as a medium of exchange for everyday transactions, such as buying a gallon of milk in the grocery store, without fiat. This is because two parallel economies exist, and bridges between fiat and cryptocurrency are needed for the time being.

But how does one price such a token with payments as its bedrock? Is there a way to arrive at a fair valuation for ACH, whose growing dominance in the payments scene is evident in the number of payment channels that integrate with its technology? Or for any other payment-focused cryptocurrencies, for that matter? Cointelegraph Research dives deeper into this subject in its most recent report.

Alchemy Pay is a Singapore-based provider of cryptocurrency payment systems and solutions. Its technology allows for the use of cryptocurrencies to pay for a product or service. Payments made in crypto are then converted for the merchant into fiat currency in real time for settlement. The ACH token is not the actual medium of exchange in this equation, but it’s crucial in facilitating fiat and cryptocurrency transactions.

For starters, the token is pledged by the network’s ecosystem partners in order to access Alchemy Pay’s services. It’s also utilized as an incentive to boost cryptocurrency transactions, as ACH tokens are rewarded to merchants and users each time cryptocurrencies are used at a point of sale. Earned ACH can later be used to pay any fees associated with the Alchemy Pay platform.

In the report, the valuation metric looks into various use cases a token can have. But given the payment tokens studied in the report, the most suitable use cases are estimated to be