Overstock.com (NASDAQ:OSTK) is now accepting Bitcoin (BTC) for purchases on their website. Overstocks CEO Patrick Byrne has been hinting that they would accept Bitcoin in the future but seeing it go live today was unexpected. Bitcoin is an online digital currency that is quickly gaining steam and popularity.
Last Tuesday Overstock (OSTK) and Coinbase struck a deal to handle bitcoin payments. The exact terms of the deal between Overstock and Coinbase have not been released but I suspect Overstock negotiated a transaction fee lower than 1%. A quote in Wired explains why bitcoin was integrated into Overstock so quickly. “I felt I had tipped my hand,” Byrne says. “I didn’t want someone else to beat us.”
I went though the check out process on Overstock to verify this for myself and as you can see there is an option to pay with bitcoin.
Overstock has included a tutorial and how to use bitcoin page on their website.
So what does all this mean for bitcoin?
In the short term bitcoin price has risen about $40 dollars per coin. Something similar happened last week when Zynga announced they would start accepting bitcon. Whether or not Overstock (OSTK) accepting bitcoin will push the price back to $1000 or over the ATH of $1200 remains to be seen. One thing that is certain this will only expose more people to the new digital currency and wider acceptance.
