As the crypto industry grows, it’s becoming easier to use cryptocurrencies at people’s favorite retail companies with infrastructure being built around payments systems.
Over the week, several major news outlets ran stories covering the basics of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.
One by CBS news claimed, “Crypto is not easy to spend.” That might have been true just five years ago, but in 2022, many national chain stores already accept Bitcoin.
Here is a list of nine companies that accept bitcoin for payment today.
Cryptocurrency Payments Infrastructure is Already Here
The following paragraph from the CBS Sunday Morning News article gives the impression that using your bitcoin to buy things people buy every day is some kind of big hassle:
“For now, you’ll have a really hard time spending it! Go to a pet store, a bodega, or a hot dog cart, and you’ll find it very hard to buy something with a cryptocurrency. One of the few stores that accept bitcoin directly is the P.J. Bernstein Deli in New York.”
Most people don’t buy a pet every day or even every year, so that’s no big deal. And that’s a pity for sidewalk hot dog stand fans whose vendors don’t use the CashApp yet. (It makes paying with Bitcoin as easy as using Apple Pay or your credit card.)
But some major chain retail companies and online merchants accept Bitcoin for payment already in 2022 (and some of them have already been doing so for years now— since before the pandemic even).
These nine S&P500 companies or subsidiaries— all NASDAQ Composite and Dow Jones blue chips— accept bitcoin for payment from their customers. Working with various fintech partners, they provide very simple or completely seamless integration at the point of sale.
9 Companies That Accept Bitcoin in 2022
Starbucks – Fans of Starbucks can buy their cup of coffee with bitcoin by loading the cryptocurrency onto their Starbucks app— since March 2020. The coffee chain accepts BTC using a platform operated by Bakkt, a digital assets custodian and exchange developed by the company that owns the New York Stock Exchange, in partnership with— Starbucks and Microsoft starting in 2018.
Microsoft – Speaking of Microsoft— the Redmond, Washington software giant also accepts bitcoin for payment for Xbox live, other Microsoft games, Windows apps, and other digital extras. It has been doing so since 2014.
Whole Foods (Amazon, Inc.) – Whole Foods began accepting cryptocurrency for groceries in 2019. That came to fruition in 2019 at the same time as Crate and Barrel and Nordstrom began accepting crypto, all thanks to the work of payments startup, Flexa in partnership with the Winklevoss-led crypto exchange Gemini.
AT&T – Telecoms company AT&T a major cellular phone network carrier and provider of cable television and high-speed Internet, began accepting BTC for payments in 2019 in partnership with BitPay.
Overstock – In 2014, Overstock.com became the world’s first major retail to accept bitcoin, shocking the world by announcing that it would happily accept imaginary Internet money that only had value in the minds of online tech geeks — and ship very real, high-end consumer electronics and home furniture right to shoppers’ doors.
Home Depot – Starting in 2019, Home Depot began accepting bitcoin for payments, powered by Flexa. A home builder could buy essentially all the materials and tools necessary to build a house from the Dow Jones blue-chip company using cryptocurrency.
PayPal – In April 2021, early fintech payments innovator PayPal started offering support for its various merchants to accept bitcoin for payment when checking out using the PayPal button.
Twitch – Fans of Twitch streams can donate to support streamers using bitcoin, ether (ETH), litecoin (LTC), and bitcoin cash (BCH). Some streamers are making more money on Twitch from cryptocurrency donations alone than the average high-earning lawyers and physicians.
Etsy – Blue chip online merchant company Etsy offers integrations that make it easy for online merchants operating their own independent stores to accept bitcoin for payments.
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