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July 1, 2014 | 12 years ago today

Newegg Accepts Bitcoin via BitPayNewegg Accepts Bitcoin via BitPay

On July 1, 2014, Newegg became the first major online electronics retailer to accept Bitcoin. It wasn't a corporate experiment in a new technology. Newegg's own customers had been demanding it for months, and the company knew exactly who those customers were.

The WaveThe Wave

Newegg didn't move in isolation. Overstock had accepted Bitcoin in January 2014. TigerDirect followed in February. By July, Newegg made it three of the internet's top tech retailers in a single six-month run. The merchant adoption story of 2014 was, more than anything else, a story about tech-facing retailers responding to a tech-native customer base.

The CustomersThe Customers

Newegg's audience had a specific character. These were PC builders, hardware enthusiasts, and engineers who had tracked Bitcoin since the GPU mining years. They had been reaching out to Newegg directly on social media, asking when the option was coming. When it arrived, it wasn't a surprise to anyone watching. Soren Mills, Newegg's Chief Marketing Officer, said the decision was "another way we're responding to our customers' diverse needs."

The BitPay InfrastructureThe BitPay Infrastructure

The partnership was with BitPay, then the largest Bitcoin payment processor in the world. BitPay had raised $32 million in venture funding, more than any Bitcoin company to that point, and was processing payments for over 35,000 merchants globally. Its platform handled not just payments but refunds and exceptions, giving Newegg a complete operational solution.

The MechanismThe Mechanism

Newegg held zero Bitcoin on its books. BitPay converted every payment to US dollars in real time. This was the standard model for the entire 2014 merchant adoption wave: the retailer bore no price exposure, no custody risk, and no operational complexity around Bitcoin. What they got was the checkout button and the headline. The actual Bitcoin stayed entirely within BitPay's infrastructure until it became dollars.

The LegacyThe Legacy

The scope at launch was significant: 25 million registered customers could pay in Bitcoin for any of 10.5 million products. Newegg kept the option running long after the novelty wore off. By 2018 it had expanded Bitcoin payments to 73 more countries. The customer demand that drove the 2014 launch never went away.

Part of an ongoing series on Bitcoin history. This event falls on July 1, 2014.