What Can You Buy with Bitcoin?
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When we talk about buying things with bitcoin, many conjure up an image of a black market filled with shady dealings, off-the-record sales and illegal products, or billionaires in search of luxury yachts and private jets. In reality, the list of goods now available to purchase with bitcoin is long.
With more than one-third of small businesses now accepting cryptocurrency as a form of payment in the United States alone, the list of products and services you can buy with the “digital gold” continues growing by the day.
From large corporations like Microsoft and AT&T to places as small as your local farmer’s market stand, bitcoin’s advantages as a payment method – namely the ease of cross-border transactions, anonymity and nonreversible transactions – have been welcomed by businesses across many industries.
Here are a few common items that can be purchased with bitcoin.
Cars
While Tesla made headlines in May 2021 when company founder Elon Musk announced it would no longer be accepting bitcoin as a payment method, the used car market remains bitcoin friendly, and has been for quite some time.
BitCars is one example of an online dealership that sells luxury vehicles of all sorts, Teslas included, with its listings priced in BTC. If you ever find yourself with a need for speed, you can purchase a Lamborghini Huracan from BitCars’ site for 12.432 BTC. Going on a road trip? For 38.68394 BTC, you can be the owner of a Vario Perfect 1000 motorhome.
For buyers in the market for something less exotic, companies like AutoCoinCars resemble your run-of-the-mill used car dealership with plenty of modest offerings.
Real estate
Purchasing real estate with bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies has gone from being a novelty to a common occurrence since the first ever bitcoin property sale in 2017. In June, a Miami penthouse sold for $22.5 million in crypto, the largest sale ever paid for by virtual currency. Numerous global real estate groups now offer their listings in bitcoin as well, including:
In the United States, popular office-sharing provider and real estate company WeWork now accepts bitcoin as a payment method through BitPay. Crypto exchange Coinbase was the first customer to take advantage of the offering.
Sporting events
While buying game-day tickets with bitcoin is not yet commonplace in all stadiums around the U.S., certain franchises have started to pave the way for its adoption. The National Basketball Association’s Dallas Mavericks, owned by blockchain investor and entrepreneur Mark Cuban, are partnered with BitPay to accept bitcoin and other forms of cryptocurrency. They even offer discounted rates on merchandise you pay for with bitcoin.
Before their current season began, Major League Baseball’s Oakland A’s announced they would be selling season tickets for luxury suites at the price of 1 BTC, or its fiat equivalent. Like the Mavericks, the A’s also have made tickets and merchandise purchasable with bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
The technology is being adopted for more than just sporting events. Bitcoin can also be used to buy tickets to concerts and other events held in arenas.
Buy artwork with bitcoin
High-profile auction houses have started to accept cryptocurrency as a payment method on the heels of the non-fungible token boom leaking into the world of fine art. The famed Phillips auction house in Hong Kong recently listed a Banksy piece valued at between $2.82 million and $4.1 million for purchase in bitcoin and ether. The list of galleries that accept bitcoin as a payment method in the United States also continues to expand nationally, and is currently concentrated on the East and West coasts.
Maecenas allows you to buy fractional shares of famous artwork as an investment using bitcoin. In 2019, it auctioned a 31.5% share of the Andy Warhol painting, 14 Small Electric Chairs, for $1.7 million.
Travel
As the travel industry opens back up, bitcoin can be used to book flights and hotels worldwide. CheapAir and Travela are both partnered with Booking.com and Expedia to allow users to make purchases using bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
A week at Los Angeles’ Beverly Hills Hotel can be purchased for 0.33 BTC, or $14,188.
Some hotels even allow customers to book stays with bitcoin directly using BitPay, although most still require the use of a third party to pay completely in bitcoin, which can lead to additional costs.
Private Jets
Crypto-savvy travelers with deeper pockets can now fly private thanks to companies like BitLux and flyExclusive, which recently started accepting bitcoin for purchasing private jet chartering. A flight from Paris to Hong Kong is priced at just under $100,000.
If you’re interested in buying your own plane outright with bitcoin, Aviatrade makes that possible, with a variety of jets listed on the site valued at tens of millions of dollars.
Web services
It intuitively makes sense that web services would be early adoptees of accepting digital currency. You can purchase a virtual private network in bitcoin through a variety of companies. Some of the most popular are ProtonVPN, Cyberghost and NordVPN.
Cloud storage is also widely available for purchase using bitcoin from companies like MEGA and Sync.
If you’re looking to host a website using bitcoin, look no further than vendors like Coin.host or Server Room. Dedicated servers start from $121.5 per month, or 0.000023 BTC.
Charity
Numerous charities have begun accepting bitcoin as a form of donation. These include popular nonprofits such as the American Red Cross, the American Cancer Society and UNICEF, as well as smaller organizations like The Water Project, Save the Children and Run 2 Rescue.
The organization Charityvest also allows you to donate to any charity using bitcoin even if it doesn’t accept cryptocurrencies directly. In 2020, $8.1 million was donated to Charityvest Funds, supporting more than 2,100 charities.
Paypal bitcoin purchases
In May, PayPal announced a new service called “Checkout with Crypto,” which allows users to make purchases using bitcoin with millions of merchants. The service converts cryptocurrency purchased through PayPal’s exchange and converts it to U.S. dollars for the merchant. At one point, it was reported that PayPal was buying up 70% of all newly minted bitcoin to make the operation possible.
While customers are unable to send money from their personal wallet to their PayPal account, the service is useful for those who use PayPal as their primary way of buying and selling bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
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