File this under “rumors,” but Amazon may be getting ready to start accepting Bitcoins and perhaps some other cryptocurrencies.
The source of the rumor is a recent report on squawker.org, where a reference is made to investor James Altucher’s newsletter. Altucher is an experienced trader, co-founder of more than 20 companies, author of 11 books, and has been a contributor to several major publications. Like that’s not enough, he is also a former hedge fund manager and venture capitalist turned activist blogger/podcaster, offering a subscription based mailing list.
The move to “go crypto” may occur as early as October 26th, during Amazon’s next earnings conference call. Or not… this is still a speculation, mind you. But it would make sense at least for the Amazon Marketplace to offer such an option to sellers which in turn would be able to opt-in to accept bitcoins and other crypto tokens as means of payment.
Users want Amazon to accept Bitcoin and Litecoin
Amazon has millions and millions of users, and some of them would like the company to start accepting cryptocurrency.
One Amazon customer made a petition on Change.org addressing the company’s CEO Jeff Bezos to accept Bitcoin and Litecoin as mode of payments. At the moment of writing this, almost 10,000 users signed its support for the effort.
Right now, Bitcoin users can spend their tokens on a number of online stores, such as Expedia, TigerDirect and even Microsoft’s own store. There is one company that leads this trend though, which leads us to the next section…
Overstock is the crypto king!
Right now, Overstock is the largest online retailer to accept cryptocurrencies. It was among the first ones to do so, and has recently updated its offering beyond Bitcoin, enabling users to spend a number of different tokens on its website.
Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne thinks it makes sense for Amazon to join this trend. “They have to follow suit,” he said. “I’d be stunned if they don’t, because they can’t just cede that part of the market to us, if we’re the only main, large retail site accepting Bitcoin.”
Conclusion
If Amazon does take the “crypto route” it would easily propel Bitcoin to the new heights, all while driving the value of other cryptocurrencies along the way.
It is tricky move for a big merchant such as Amazon which works with slim margins. Perhaps, as noted above, it starts by enabling merchants in the Amazon Marketplace to accept cryptocurrencies, or does something similar for its web services business, AWS.
We’ll be waiting for late October and listening to the market beat… Stay tuned to Wallet Weekly in the meantime, and if you still haven’t — grab some cryptocurrencies for yourself. 😉