When you search online for brands that accept Bitcoin as payment for their goods and services, you are most likely to be directed to lists that are grossly misleading.

It is not in dispute that Satoshi Nakamoto meant Bitcoin to be a form of money. That is a medium of exchange, store of value, and unit of account.

Nakamoto actually makes that very clear right at the very beginning of the Bitcoin white paper, where they introduce the cryptocurrency as ‘a purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash that would allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution.’

As a store of value, Bitcoin has actually done very well in the decade that has gone by since its launch. In 2024, even mainstream corporate entities are adding it to their balance sheets as an asset. That is in addition to hundreds of thousands of enthusiasts who HODL it for future use.

Meanwhile, there is very little use of Bitcoin as a unit of account and as far as its acceptance as payment for goods and services (medium of exchange), Bitcoin is still a work in progress.   The actual number of US businesses that accept it is hard to come by, especially because of the lack of a mechanism to do an accurate enumeration. One often cited study by the Fintech firm Fundera puts the number at about 2300. That is physical merchants, mostly corner shops and cafes. If you try and look for major businesses that accept Bitcoin for online purchases, the list shrinks to no more than a few dozens of merchants. Online lists of merchants that accept Bitcoin are copied from inaccurate or un-updated originals.

All in all, businesses that are often listed as accepting Bitcoin as a form of payment for their goods and services can be put into three broad categories.

1. Those that don’t even know that they accept Bitcoin.

Yes, there are hundreds of American brands that are often listed as among those that accept Bitcoin, but then it turns out that they have never included it in the list payment methods they accept.

2. Brands that accept Bitcoin for very limited use.

It is often the case that a major brand has chosen to accept Bitcoin but only for niche products or very limited use. These merchants are often included in the list of those that accept Bitcoin. However, that is often misleading especially when you consider that the goods or services that they sell for Bitcoin are too niched or inaccessible to the average customer.

For example, the fashion brand Ralph Lauren has since early 2023 been listed as among major American brands that accept Bitcoin. However, the fact is that it is only a single shop in Miami’s Design District that accepts Bitcoin out of 222 that exist across the country. And their online shop does not accept Bitcoin, at least not yet.

Another example is Microsoft. While the tech company announced in 2014 that it had started accepting Bitcoin, such payment option is not available on their online website (at least not in the US).

Other brands that show up frequently on online lists of merchants accepting Bitcoin but do not actually accept Bitcoin payments online include Rakuten, Burger King, KFC, Subway and Starbucks. Perhaps they do so in only a few local stores. Then there are brands such as  Tesla and Reddit, that at some point announced they would accept Bitcoin, but have since discontinued the practice.

3. Brands that actually accept Bitcoin.

A brand that actually accepts Bitcoin is one where the shopper uses their own Bitcoin wallet directly at the point of sale. This type of transaction falls into two subcategories.

The first is where there is a payment processor (e.g. Bitpay) acting as an interface between the customer and the merchant but within the point of sale system. In this arrangement, the merchant does not hold the Bitcoin. For every transaction, the processor takes the Bitcoin, exchanges it at the reigning market rate, and deposits the dollar amount in the merchant’s bank account.

The second is where merchants directly accept and keep Bitcoin. Because of the risk of losing profit margins to market volatility, very few merchants, as of 2024, actually accept and hold Bitcoin.

So how do you find merchants that accept Bitcoin online directly or through a payment processor?

That is where we come in. Bitaggregator is where you find online businesses that accept Bitcoin. We take the necessary steps to verify that each business that is presented actually accepts Bitcoin.