Bitcoin will now be available along with other international payment options, such as credit and debit cards, wire transfers, bank transfers and third-party wallets.

"With Digital River's expertise in the global commerce and payments industry, we're proud to support the extension of their payment options for small to mid-sized businesses"

"Bitcoin continues to attract more mainstream attention," said Tom Peterson, executive vice president and general manager of commerce at Digital River. "We're excited to be among the first pure play ecommerce providers to make the cryptocurrency available for small to mid-sized businesses interested in providing their online shoppers more payment choices and added convenience.

"Because Digital River acts as the merchant- and seller-of-record, our international base of customers can accept and process bitcoin payments in their U.S. online stores with less risk than they could on their own," added Peterson. "In addition, this business model creates an opportunity for our customers to offer payment solutions that may be in earlier stages of adoption in their domestic markets."

Digital River partnered with San Francisco-based Coinbase, a bitcoin wallet and platform provider, to handle the conversion of bitcoin into U.S. dollars and process the payments. "The payments world is energized by talks of digital currencies," said Souheil Badran, Digital River World Payments' senior vice president and general manager. "One of the bigger risks faced by merchants is dealing with the volatility of the digital currency market. Partnering with Coinbase allows Digital River to help mitigate that risk for our customers."

"With Digital River's expertise in the global commerce and payments industry, we're proud to support the extension of their payment options for small to mid-sized businesses," said Adam White, director of business development and sales at Coinbase. "This partnership is another positive step forward in bringing bitcoin payments to the everyday consumer."

Digital River's small to mid-sized ecommerce solution provides online merchants with multiple platforms and tools to successfully build, manage and grow profitable ebusinesses on a worldwide basis. Priced affordably, the solution is based on a do-it-yourself ecommerce model with short click-through contracts, global ecommerce features and customizable e-store set-up options.