Newegg Logo
As Bitcoin becomes more and more boring (and standardized) the amount of companies that begin to accept it increase ever more. A few months ago, TigerDirect announced that they would be accepting Bitcoin and that clearly has motivated other etailers to do so as well.
Newegg Bitcoin
So, it comes as little surprise that Newegg today announced that they will also be accepting Bitcoins as a form of payment for products on their site. There are no restrictions on what can be purchased with Bitcoin on Newegg’s site, which makes it incredibly attractive to anyone looking to spend their extra Bitcoins. Even though sites like Amazon haven’t quite yet accepted Bitcoins yet, Newegg is an online retailer that does billions of dollars in revenue every year, unlike some of their smaller competitors. Really, Newegg is the biggest computer hardware vendor in the US and is looking to expand globally so this means a lot more for Bitcoin than a lot of people think.
While Bitcoin isn’t anywhere near the value it was near its peak, there is still a good chance that hundreds of millions of dollars that are looking to be spent could be spent with Newegg as opposed to forcing people to convert their Bitcoins into dollars (and pay fees). Allowing users to pay with Bitcoins directly merely reduces the amount of friction and makes it easier for them to spend their valuable Bitcoins on Newegg merchandise. However, Newegg also has to be careful about the potential of stolen Bitcoins being used to buy products and hardware and what the legal repercussions could be of hardware being purchased using stolen Bitcoin. While I’m sure Newegg Legal has been discussing this for months up until today’s announcement, there’s still a risk and it appears that Newegg is willing to take it.
