London-based Payza has become the first e-wallet provider to treat bitcoin like any fiat currency allowing users to hold bitcoins directly in their Payza e-wallet, according to a press release.

Payza members also can instantly send and receive bitcoin to and from other Payza members. The fee to receive bitcoin is 1.2 percent per transaction — less than the standard Payza receiving fee of 2.9 percent plus 30 cents, the announcement  said.

Merchants who use Payza to process online payments will also have the option to receive bitcoin as payment for their products.

Previously, all payments made with bitcoin were automatically converted to fiat currency by Payza. Now, merchants will have the option to retain those payments in bitcoin in an e-wallet until they choose to convert the funds themselves. Merchants will have the additional option to set their prices directly in bitcoin without also setting that price in a traditional currency such as the U.S. dollar.

Merchants will continue to have the choice to automatically convert bitcoin payments into fiat currency, according to the announcement.

"We were among the first online payment platforms and e-wallet providers to embrace bitcoin back in 2014," Firoz Patel, Payza global executive vice president, said in a statement. "Even then we recognized the important role bitcoin was set to play in e-commerce. The ultimate goal was to provide our members a secure option to store their bitcoins in their Payza accounts. So we mapped out a set of incremental steps to accomplish that goal. Today, we fulfill our promise to our members and are now able to treat Bitcoin like any other currency we deal with."