Soon after Overstock.com became one of the first major online retailers to accept bitcoins the website has experienced tremendous financial success since then. Its decision to incorporate the digital currency into its business model has helped its bottom line by adding four cents per share to its earnings this year, according to Patrick Byrne, CEO of Overstock.com.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with Reuters last week, Byrne confirmed the growing monetary rewards from establishing a bitcoin precedent. Byrne stated that bitcoin sales have already surpassed $2 million this year, which equates to roughly one-quarter of one percent of overall sales.
For the remainder of the year, Byrne believes bitcoin sales will likely reach between $6 and $8 million due to new customers – Overstock announced last month that it would be expanding its bitcoin acceptance internationally by the middle of September. Byrne highlighted that bitcoin sales total about $15,000 per day, or $300,000 each month. When 2014 comes to an end, Overstock could perform $1 million in bitcoin sales every month.
Byrne noted that the website has pretty much become affiliated with the peer-to-peer decentralized virtual currency.
“What I get at conferences is, ‘I switched my purchases to you online as a show of support.’ That’s what I get in the Bitcoin community. It’s become part of the Bitcoin ethic to go and buy something on Overstock.com,” Byrne told the Business Insider. “We’re associated with Bitcoin at this point.”
It’s certain that Overstock has made bitcoin a part of its long-term plans – the company has already confirmed that it will be allocating four percent of its bitcoin sales to promote the digital currency.
“We’re in bitcoin for the long haul, I intend to make it permanent,” said Byrne. “Cryptocurrencies like bitcoin are going to be around for as long as the law of mathematics works.”
This year has been the year for bitcoin as more than half a million merchants all over the world have added bitcoin to its method of payments. In the past couple of months alone the likes of Dell, Dish Network, Newegg and 1-800-FLOWERS have all transformed into bitcoin-savvy businesses.
