Cryptocurrency Boosts Silicon Valley Jeweler

RAPAPORT… Cryptocurrency transactions have grown to 20% of sales at a California-based retailer in the past year, enhancing the company’s ability to clinch high-value deals, its CEO said.

Stephen Silver Fine Jewelry, which implemented the system in 2014, claims
to be the first jeweler to accept cryptocurrency.

“Cryptocurrency has surpassed the volume of retail credit-card
purchases in the company in a very short time period,” CEO Stephen Silver, who
is also a tech-startup investor, said recently. “We’ve created revenue that the
company would not even enjoy without being able to accept cryptocurrency…. Large sums of money are where we are finding
cryptocurrency to be a huge advantage.”

The move, led by company president Jared Silver (pictured), began as an
easier and more secure alternative to wire transfers, but also meant the
jeweler received immediate payment, rather than the usual two-to three-day wait
period for transfers. Additionally, investors save up to 1.5%, since purchases
made with Bitcoin do not incur conversion fees.

The jeweler has been weighing up blockchain technology as a
payment option for years, with its customers asking to pay in cryptocurrency.

“Given that Stephen Silver Fine Jewelry is based in Silicon
Valley, the cradle of innovation, we’ve been monitoring the development of
blockchain technology since 2008,” Jared Silver told Rapaport
News. “In 2014, we felt it had matured to the point that we could bring the
technology into our store.”

The payment method has become an “indispensable” tool, said Jared
Silver.
An average sale runs close to seven figures, and the retailer has no limit on
the amount it will process per purchase. Silver said he had received a
million-dollar cryptocurrency payment recently.

The company also pays for any sourced goods it uses with
cryptocurrency when able, but, Jared Silver noted, “this would be contingent on
the supply chain adopting the technology.”

Images: Stephen Silver Fine Jewelry