Unexpected Things You Didn't Know You Could Buy With Crypto

Photo: Rovsky (Shutterstock)

Most people buy and hold cryptocurrency in the hopes that it will one day replace fiat currencies and therefore become more valuable. However, increasingly, some are looking to spend it, too, with 40% of crypto holders planning to make a purchase in the next year, according to a recent survey.

While the options for doing so are still limited (and convoluted), retailers are offering a growing number of ways to actually use your crypto as currency.

Here’s a look at some things you can buy with crypto, right now:

• Gift cards: In exchange for currencies like Bitcoin and Ehtereum, sites like eGifter and Gyft offer gift cards for all sorts of retailers, like Sony, the NBA Store, Spotify, Southwest Airlines and Nordstrom. Of course, gift cards are an additional hassle if you’d rather spend with these retailers directly—but for now, gift cards allow you to spend at a large variety of retailers that don’t normally accept crypto.
• Sports events: The NBA’s Sacramento Kings, Dallas Mavericks and Miami Dolphins accept crypto for tickets, as do the NHL’s San Jose Sharks. The MLB’s Oakland A’s now accept Bitcoin for a select number of luxury box suites, as well.
• Home goods: U.S.-based retailer Overstock offers home furnishings, home improvement materials, as well as jewelry. They also take Bitcoin directly, with no intermediary app or gift card exchange required.
• Coffee: You need an app called Bakkt for this, but it’s possible to convert Bitcoin into credits on the Starbucks app. If you’re already a regular customer and app user, this could be a convenient way to spend crypto.
• Travel: All sorts of travel agencies accept crypto for airline and hotel bookings (we did a post about all your options here). The standout is Travala, which has a partnership with Expedia; crypto holders can also spend it on more than 700,000 Expedia Group hotels and accommodations.
• Art: Auction houses Sotheby’s and Christie’s accept the cryptocurrencies Ethereum and Bitcoin for big-item auctions. And while this art would be all-digital, you could dip your toe in the highly speculative world of non-fungible tokens, or NFTs. There are a bunch of marketplaces to choose from, too.
• Porn: Mindgeek, which runs a bunch of porn sites (including Pornhub), accepts cryptocurrency, as does Chaturbate. As the New York Times points out, cryptocurrency can be used anonymously, making it the preferred payment option for people who don’t want their spending to be traced.

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