As experience has shown, for most people crypto is more an investment tool for high return in a short period of time. However, today, the development of financial markets and new services make crypto a convenient payment tool, especially when it comes to online shopping.
Today, crypto is used more as a payment for high-value deals, but new digital technologies make it a convenient payment option for all purchases, as it is really easy for companies to add crypto payment options for the services. Wallet-to-wallet transfers are no longer the only option for crypto payment for goods and services as there are crypto processing services, payment by QR-code.
Where and what to buy with crypto
The number of companies and services offering crypto payment is increasing.
Travel, leisure and tourism
You don't have to pay for your plane or train ticket with fiat. You can pay with Bitcoin. You can also use crypto to book hotel rooms and pay for travel arrangements. You can do this with Bitcoin.Travel, AirBaltic, CheapAir, Expedia, Surf Air, Travel For Coins.
If traveling around our planet is getting boring, you can pay with Bitcoin for Virgin Galactic for the tourists space flights the company wants to launch in 2023.
IT, Internet resources and video services
Many IT companies accept crypto as well.
Shopify. The software developer provides online shops with an opportunity to accept payment in crypto. Such platforms as Coinbase Commerce, Crypto.com, Strike, BitPay, DePay and OpenNode can be used for this purpose. Tangem is an example of such a Shopify crypto shop.
Twitch, one of the world's largest gaming platforms, offers Bitcoin and Litecoin payments through NOWpayments, a cryptocurrency payment processing service.
WordPress, one of the world's most popular website builders, allows online shops built on WordPress to accept cryptocurrency payments.
Retail
Newegg is an electronics megamarket accepting Bitcoin.
The most popular e-market platform, Amazon, makes Bitcoin payment possible, but not directly, via purse.io. To pay in Bitcoin, you need to choose an item on Amazon and put it in a shopping cart on purse.io. Someone who wants to buy Bitcoins, after seeing such a request, pays for your purchase in fiat, all items are sent to you, while Bitcoins are sent to the real buyer.
Balenciaga, Gucci, Tag Heuer are also starting to accept payment in crypto. Cryptocurrency payment will be available not only for online purchases, but also in offline shops with QR codes.
Food and drinks
Starbucks, the famous American coffee shop chain, accepts cryptocurrency payments with Future Bakkt app, an exchange platform. The app creates a one-time QR code to show at the cash register.
Burger King, siding with Cryptobuyer in Venezuela, accepts payment in different cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin, Litecoin, Dash, Ethereum and USDT.
Fast-food chain KFC in Canada has been accepting BTC as payment since 2018. All payments are processed through BitPay.
Asia-Pacific branch of Coca-Cola promised in 2020 its Australia and New Zealand crypto payment option.
In mid-June 2020, Coca-Cola and Centrapay signed a partnership agreement for Coca-Cola clients to buy drinks at vending machines with crypto via the Sylo Smart Wallet app. Sylo Smart Wallet can be used to buy drinks from any of Coca-Cola's 2,000 vending machines with special stickers featuring a QR code.
Sports Industry
A famous billionaire investor and owner of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team is a great bitcoin fan, so you can buy anything the team related with Bitcoin. You can even buy tickets to the games on the team's website with BTC.
The Miami Dolphins football team allows their fans to buy food and match tickets with Litecoin.
It's not just American athletes who love crypto. Benfica, Lisbon football team, offers its fans the opportunity to pay with cryptocurrency.
Cars, planes, yachts
In Europe, BTC is accepted by the Czech platform Alza, one of the largest online electronics retailers in Central Europe. Alza offers not only electronics, but also different product categories, including the automobile category. You can buy Tesla electric cars and other automobile products with crypto.
Only planes and yachts manufacturers accept crypto for them, but private ads offer such an option.
Denison Yachting sells its yachts and catamarans for Bitcoins. The first deal was made in 2017. Back then, a Virgin Islands buyer bought a Leopard catamaran for BTC. Coinbase, a cryptocurrency exchange, acted as an intermediary in the transaction.
You can even buy your own aircraft using BTC. SkyCraft, aircraft manufacturer, is ready to accept payment for its products in BTC. The SkyCraft SD-1 Minisport is the first aircraft that could be purchased with bitcoins.
Jewelry
You can buy precious metals and jewelry with cryptocurrency. For example, Samer Halimeh New York, a jewelry company, accepts Bitcoin as a payment method.
Or JM Bullion, North America's leading online precious metals shop, sells gold, silver and other precious metals for crypto. USD-stablecoins, BTC, BCH, ETH, DOGE are accepted.
Real estate
Huobi, Chinese crypto exchange, siding with Fäm Properties, real estate agency, is offering property buyers around the world to pay for their purchases in crypto. Huobi is an intermediary for transactions, offering guarantees of transparency and security.
The Brazilian real estate developer Gafisa offers to purchase real estate for BTC. The company wants to attract investment from other countries, and the cryptocurrency helps make real estate deals fast and secure.
Status Property and Gold Ahiskali, Turkish agencies, offer to buy real estate for Bitcoins. Ataberk Estate offers the opportunity to pay for real estate in Turkey with Bitcoins, as well as Bitcoin Gold, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, Ripple, Ethereum, Tether and Stellar.
Payment systems
PayPal is the first payment system to add crypto for transactions. PayPal is an intermediary. The procedure is as follows: the system exchanges crypto for dollars at its internal exchange rate, which already includes the cost of conversion.
US buyers with a PayPal account can use Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, and Litecoin to pay for goods or services with Checkout with Crypto. Users can make purchases at more than 29 million outlets on the service. All it takes is a few simple steps:
- Click on "Place an order using PayPal".
- Fill in your PayPal account details and click "Login".
- Select Crypto Review Terms and Conditions and click "I understand".
- View the exchange rate and click "Sell" (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin or Bitcoin Cash) to continue.
Charity
Some charity organizations accept donations in crypto: BitHope, Giftcoin, GiveCrypto, Giveth, Crypto Charity Fund and Helperbit. For the most part, these organizations are aggregator sites. For example, CryptoForCharity offers making crypto donations to one of 55,000 charities. CryptoForCharity, as an intermediary, charges around 5% of the donation amount for its services.
The Red Cross also accepts donations in BTC with cryptocurrency payment service Bitpay.
Others
Badoo, a dating platform, accepts crypto payment. Almost all betting sites accept cryptocurrencies.
Moreover, Bitcoin Coffee in the Czech Republic does not accept any fiat money at all. It only accepts cryptocurrency, including Bitcoin and Litecoin.
According to some studies, more than two-thirds of cryptocurrency payments are accepted in Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin. Also, Dash and Dogecoin are becoming increasingly popular.
The article shows that cryptocurrency is no longer something sophisticated, only for a select few. Cryptocurrency is becoming a part of our daily life. More and more shops, companies, and platforms accept crypto. You can use Coinmap to study all the places accepting crypto payments. Coinmap is constantly expanding as more and more shops and services around the world use this payment method. As of today you can find 30,446 shops all over the world on Coinmap.