On Tuesday (April 19), it was announced that Porsche Towson now accepts highly popular meme-based cryptocurrency Shiba Inu ($SHIB) as a means of payment.
Porsche Towson is a Porsche dealer in Towson, Maryland, United States that sells both brand new and pre-owned Porsche cars. Here is an example of one of the 2022 cars that they currently have in stock:
Well, earlier today, crypto payment processor BitPay announced on Twitter that Porsche Towson is now “accepting Crypto as payment for vehicle purchases.”
BitPay, which is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, was founded in May 2011 by Tony Gallippi and Stephen Pair. The goal was “to make it easy for businesses to accept bitcoin payments,” and by September 2013, over 10,000 merchants were accepting Bitcoin (BTC) with the help of BitPay. Currently, the company claims to be “the largest bitcoin payment processor in the world, serving businesses on 6 continents.” Amongst its backers are Index Ventures, Founders Fund, and Felicis Ventures.
On 8 December 2021, BitPay announced in a blog post that $SHIB fans could “buy, store, swap and spend with this Ethereum ERC-20 token directly in the BitPay app.”
Here is how BitPay described the Shiba Inu project and the $SHIB Token:
“Anonymously created in August 2020, the decentralized meme token is another token inspired by the Japanese dog breed Shiba Inu. The token has recorded the greatest increase in value and popularity in 2021 of all the cryptocurrencies thanks to its community of supporters, the SHIBArmy. Unlike other cryptocurrencies, SHIB was built with a total supply of one quadrillion, so investors of SHIB can hold up to trillions in their wallets. The token has evolved into the Shiba Inu ecosystem called ShibaSwap, a decentralized exchange on the Ethereum network. SHIB has two sibling tokens, Leash and Bone.“
BtPay said that the BitPay Card (which you apply for via the BitPay app and which seems to be available only in the U.S. at the moment) can be “used wherever MasterCard is accepted” and that the main way it differs from using a traditional debit card is that with its debit card you load it via any of a large number of crypto wallets.
As for where you can shop using $SHIB in your BitPay debit card, Walmart, which is the world’s largest company by revenue, already allows you to spend your $SHIB at physical store locations or for online purchases. For those people who do not have a BitPay debit card, one online shopping giant that already supports $SHIB is Newegg. BitPay says that any of their merchant clients should now easily be able to add support for $SHIB as a means of payment.
BitPay’s press release mentioned that Stephen Pair, CEO of BitPay had this to say about this integration with $SHIB:
“The Shiba Inu community is passionate about its coin and serious about giving those consumers places to spend SHIB. BitPay believes that the more community involvement from coin holders supports awareness and adoption helping to move the blockchain industry to pave the way for blockchain payments to disrupt the way consumers and businesses receive and spend funds.“
The press release went on to say that the other cryptoassets that BitPay merchants can accept are Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Dogecoin (DOGE), Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC), and five USD-pegged stable coins (BUSD, DAI, GUSD, USDP, and USDC).
Disclaimer
The views and opinions expressed by the author, or any people mentioned in this article, are for informational purposes only, and they do not constitute financial, investment, or other advice. Investing in or trading cryptoassets comes with a risk of financial loss.
Image Credit
Featured Image by “KahlOrr” via Pixabay
