The euphoria sparked by rumours that large consortiums such as PayPal or Amazon would begin to accept Bitcoins as a form of payment often unleashes waves of searches about the mainstream adoption of Bitcoin. Although those previously mentioned have not yet been confirmed, Bitcoin is accepted in hundreds of businesses around the world, such as large restaurant chains, retailers, and e-commerce stores. Discover here the definitive and updated list of the most important businesses that accept Bitcoin in 2020.
The list of the 10 largest companies that accept Bitcoin as a form of payment
Overstock.com
We open the list with one of the most visionary companies in the e-commerce industry, being one of the first sites to accept Bitcoin payments. Overstock’s opening goes much further: the platform has even plans to support other cryptocurrencies like Monero, Litecoin, NEM, Ethereum and Dash. At the time of writing, however, overstock.com only gives the option to pay with BTC:
The relationship between this online store and Bitcoin dates back to 2014, when Overstock.com became the first major publicly-traded company to accept Bitcoin as a form of payment, following an agreement with Coinbase. But its executive director goes even further. In 2018 Patrick Byrne predicted in an interview that the rise of cryptocurrencies would occur in the “next global financial crisis.” More recently, Business Insider claimed that Byrne sold all of its shares – valued at $ 90 million – to invest in cryptocurrency and gold.
Unicef
It has become the largest charity to accept donations in cryptocurrency. The United Nations Children’s Fund or UNICEF opened a fund a few months ago, in December 2019, to accept donations in Bitcoin and Ethereum, the two most important cryptocurrencies by market capitalization.
In addition to providing humanitarian aid to children, UNICEF will also use a portion of these funds to support blockchain entrepreneurship companies with a mission or potential to “help humanity.” Donations can also be made in Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash, but they are not anonymous.
Microsoft
Microsoft has opened the doors to Bitcoin in a remarkable way, although without doing much marketing about it. It has been doing this for several years in the XBox content store and, more recently, BTC has also been added as a payment method in the official Microsoft store.
Despite Bill Gates’ denial of Bitcoin, the company has become increasingly involved in the blockchain arena. The technology giant – which has held the place of the company with the largest market capitalization in the world – recently launched a decentralized identification system under the Bitcoin blockchain.
Twitch
The popular streaming platform widely used in the video gaming world has had an intermittent stance regarding its acceptance of bitcoin payments.
It is one of the most popular sites to accept Bitcoin after re-enabling the option in mid-2019.
WordPress
In order to facilitate the creation of content, WordPress has accepted bitcoins for several years. After buying Bitcoin or storing them in a corresponding wallet, users can use these funds to buy website creation packages, plugins, templates, and more.
WordPress is the largest Content Management System (CMS) in the world and, by 2020, it is estimated that it has a 54% participation in this market niche. In clearer numbers, WordPress hosts more than 27 million websites published on the Internet.
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is the free encyclopaedia where everyone can share information and is one of the most widely known sites of the Internet today. This non-profit website is supported by the Wikimedia Foundation, which has accepted Bitcoin donations since 2014.
The information was consulted and reaffirmed in 2020, and we have verified that Wikipedia continues to accept tips or donations in BTC, BCH and ETH through BitPay.
Subway, Domino’s Pizza and KFC
These restaurant chains are among the most important in the world and operate globally. However, the decision to accept cryptocurrencies as a means of payment has not been made globally and its acceptance depends on each jurisdiction. In countries like Venezuela, for example, some major chains like Burger King have accepted payments in smaller cryptocurrencies like Dash.
In the case of Subway, some selected stores in the USA and Argentina accept Bitcoin payments. Solutions like Pizza for Coins allows you to buy from sites like Domino’s Pizza using your funds in BTC. The French branch of this franchise also has a link to Bitcoin. Meanwhile, KFC Canada launched the special offer “The Bitcoin Bucket” in 2018.
KFC Canada presents The #Bitcoin Bucket. Sure, we don’t know exactly what Bitcoins are, or how they work, but that shouldn’t come between you and some finger lickin’ good chicken. https://t.co/2OKuCHk5Hb pic.twitter.com/UwaduB8toi
— KFC Canada (@kfc_canada) January 11, 2018
PayPal and Bitcoin: Rumours of a partnership grow
PayPal is one of the largest electronic payment platforms in the world, with more than 325 million users. Although cryptocurrencies initially seemed to threaten PayPal as indirect competitors, this online payments company appears to have succumbed to the ‘crypto fever’.
Thus, Coindesk sources assure that PayPal and Venmo will launch a service to sell and buy cryptocurrencies directly from their applications.
“They are going to have a kind of built-in wallet functionality so you can store them there,” states a source who is “very well connected in the industry.”
The launch would occur in the third quarter of 2020, although PayPal has not yet confirmed it. In conjunction with the dream of Amazon accepting bitcoins, PayPal is probably one of the big bets to take the adoption of the ‘crypto’ industry to the next level.
30 other sites that accept Bitcoin in 2020
- Charities: Save the Children, Internet Archive, the Red Cross (in selected countries), and The Water Project.
- Airlines and travel agencies: CheapAir.com, Air Baltic, Destinia.com, Expedia, Surf Air and Air Lituanica.
- Brokers that accept Bitcoin as deposits: FXTM, AvaTrade and Markets.com.
- Others: Shopify, Etsy, NewEgg, Bloomberg, Purse.io, Pornhub, Mint, AT&T (USA), Miami Dolphins, Dallas Mavericks, Namecheap, Mega.nz, Badoo, Rakuten, PureVPN and Dish Network.