How to spend bitcoin in your everyday life
When you talk to bitcoiners, sometimes you might get a sense that you are never, ever, supposed to spend your bitcoin – that’s it’s more like a forever savings account rather than an actual digital cash. That’s an understandable approach: even given the current bear market sentiment, if you’ve held your bitcoin for the past ten years, your investment has already gone up a mind-blowing 15,000%! One of the people I know, a distinguished crypto expert, told me the hat he bought for bitcoin in 2012, just for the fun of it, could now pay off his mortgage…
However, if you treat bitcoin not just as a rainy day investment but more as an everyday payment tool – say, you get paid for your work in bitcoin – you need to spend it. And today, there are plenty of ways to do it without cashing out first. Let’s go through them.
Direct bitcoin payments
There are still few physical places in the world where you can pay someone directly with a peer-to-peer bitcoin transfer, but they exist. Some bars around the world accept bitcoin – if you’re a New York-based bitcoiner, you must know about PubKey with their bitcoin-themed events, for example – they accept bitcoin via Lightning. Or if you’re in London, BrewDog pubs have been accepting crypto payments since 2019.
Among the most well-known companies that accept bitcoin directly from your wallet are electronics seller Newegg, domain name registrar Namecheap, and provider of encrypted email, VPN and other privacy tools Proton. Booking websites Travala and Alternative Airlines also allows you to pay for hotels and flights directly from your bitcoin wallet.
The landscape of businesses accepting bitcoin changes all the time – some join the party, and some decide that crypto is not actually for them – so you’d need to do a bit of your own research and see which places in your town accept bitcoin. For that, you can check the BTC Map or look up business by categories on Bitcoinwide. But keep in mind that the information on these resources might be outdated – you might want to reach out to the vendor and double-check whether they actually accept bitcoin and how.
Gift cards
If the store you want to buy from does not accept crypto directly, you still might be able to pay for their stuff without converting to fiat – with gift cards. Services like Bitrefill, Coinsbee, BitPay, and eGifter offer a broad range of gift cards for all kinds of things.
You can buy just debit cards with some cash on them or dedicated gift cards to pay for your cell phone service, online subscriptions, gaming platforms, as well as get credits for online marketplaces like Amazon, Ebay or Etsy, buy electronics, order food or buy groceries, shop for clothing, furniture and other kinds of things. There are also services like Moon, which allow you to buy virtual debit cards and pay with them for goods and services with selected merchants.
In this scenario, you send a gift card seller your bitcoin and receive a code for your digital gift card, which you then can use. Check which services are available where you’re based and what gift cards they offer.
Payments via intermediary services
The world of mainstream, brick and mortar businesses is gradually warming up to bitcoin, but still few household names dare to operate actual bitcoin wallets. However, there is a fair amount of well-known brands that accept bitcoin via partnerships with crypto payment services. This way, customers can spend their crypto but the store will get fiat on its bank account, as the intermediary service converts bitcoin into fiat behind the scenes. Here are some of the big names that adopted such a scheme.
American grocery chain Whole Foods, home goods retailer The Home Depot, as well as restaurant chains Chipotle, Baskin Robbins and Starbucks accept bitcoin via the payment processor Flexa, so customers can pay using the SPEDN app.
U.S. cinema theaters chain AMC accepts bitcoin via BitPay.
Luxury brands Gucci, Ralph Lauren and Balenciaga have been accepting bitcoin payments in selected U.S. stores via BitPay, as well as watch brands Hublot and TAG Heuer. There are also a number of luxury watch and jewelry online shops where you can pay with bitcoin as well.
Swiss insurance company AXA accepts bitcoin via a partnership with Bitcoin Swiss.
Birkenstock, Crocs, Chanel, Under Armour and other fashion brands accept bitcoin in South Africa via a partnership with Scan To Pay and Binance.
In Canada, you can pay your utility bills via Lightning, using Bitcoin Well. Services like Strike, Electrocoin, Zypto, Swain and Mt.Pelerin allow users in Europe to pay bills and invoices in crypto.
There is also a similar option for users who are comfortable with keeping some of their bitcoin on a centralized exchange: major exchanges like Kraken, Coinbase, Gemini, Crypto.com and others issue debit or credit cards that allow users to spend crypto from their accounts, with the exchange facilitating the conversion of crypto into fiat on the backend.
Something bigger
Over the past years, new ways to spend bitcoin have emerged for those who accumulated a considerable stash and are ready to go big in their purchases. For example, in the U.S., you can buy real estate via services like RealOpen, which facilitate converting buyers’ crypto into fiat for sellers. Or, alternatively, help secure purely crypto deals for luxury properties, like Christie’s International Real Estate.
In Europe, bitcoiners can use services like Brighty to buy real estate in the UK, France, Malta, Cyprus, and Andorra. Different countries allow different ways for exchanging your bitcoin for a new home: some, like Portugal, allow direct cryptocurrency transactions, while others, like Spain, require converting bitcoin into euro for such transactions.
Alternatively, instead of exchanging your bitcoin for a home, you might use it as a collateral for a loan.
Depending on where you live, there are various options to spend your bitcoin, discover and support your local crypto-friendly businesses – and have fun with it. Don’t forget to check your local crypto tax regulations and whether spending your crypto means tax liability for you.