On Feb. 10, eBay UK will be establishing a dedicated Virtual Currency category on its website’s classified section. The category will permit users to buy and sell all kinds of virtual currencies, including bitcoin (BTC), litecoin and others.
“To promote a trustworthy marketplace and ensure compliance with applicable regulations, eBay is currently updating its Currency Policy. The updated policy will clarify that listings for Bitcoin and other similar virtual currencies must be listed in the Virtual Currency Category in the Classified Ad format,” said Ryan Moore, Manager of Business Communications at eBay, in a statement to Coin Desk.
The policy change will only apply to the UK version of eBay – policies vary from other nations. Experts say that the likely reason eBay revised its policy was because a user had discovered a loophole that would allow users to sell bitcoin as long as they are sold on a platform, such as a USB stick or hard drive.
“To clarify: we have no policies against using PayPal to sell Bitcoin mining rigs. We don’t support any currency txn whether fiat or BTC for a host of regulatory issues,” tweeted Marcus. “But we treat BTC and any FX txn the same way. We’re believers in BTC though.”
This comes as Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne announced that his company would start to accept bitcoins. He told CNN in a recent interview that he believes other big online retailers, like Amazon, will soon follow the trend and adopt the digital currency.
“This forces the hand of Amazon and some other big players,” said Byrne. “They have to follow suit. You will see them follow suit, I’ll be stunned if you don’t, because they can’t just cede that part of the market to us, if we’re the only main, large retail site taking bitcoin. Either they have to start taking it, or they’re just giving away a piece of the market.”
Over the past few months, merchants worldwide have begun allowing bitcoins to be used to buy and sell goods and services. It still remains to be seen if the United States government cracks down on the cryptocurrency a la the Chinese government. This could then perhaps lead to businesses to scale back its enthusiasm for the virtual currency.