There’s momentum building for Bitcoins. The price for the digital currency jumped from a record $32 last week to it now trading at over $40 Tuesday morning (ET).
And Namecheap, a domain hosting service, is now accepting the digital currency.
On Tuesday, MT Gox reported that Bitcoins were trading for $40.19 as of 9:30 a.m. (ET).
Namecheap will also now let customers pay with Bitcoins for getting domain names, Web hosting services, SSL certificates and security programs.
The acceptance of Bitcoins is important since it has had more than one million customers. It is the first major domain registrar to decide to accept payment with Bitcoins. “For months, Bitcoin has been requested of Namecheap among the tech audience,” the company added on its website.
Last week, the Internet Archive agreed to pay employees in Bitcoins. It is also accepted by Kim Dotcom’s Mega service and WordPress.com, according to The Next Web.
Reddit accepts it as well, and Dotcom wants to see a Bitcoin credit card.
In another key event, the price increase for Bitcoins came at the same time Japan’s MT Gox exchange partnered with CoinLab to bring its operations to the United States.
Bitcoin is not connected to a central bank or government agency, like dollars or pounds. But its proponents see that as advantage. Bitcoins increase in value as time passes, advocates say.
“The whole idea of a currency that increases in value is so foreign to us, so it is exciting to be a part of this movement,” Dan Charbonneau, CEO at CBT Nuggets (News - Alert), told TechWeekEurope. “We accept dollars and then we just can’t wait to get rid of them, because we know that tomorrow those dollars are going to be worth less. So we have to get them into some vehicle that is not going to be worth less, to protect ourselves.”
In another important event for the Bitcoin sector, BitcoinStore, an online electronics store which trades exclusively in Bitcoins, began operating this week, according to IEEE Spectrum. Since there will be no credit card fees, prices can be kept lower. Similarly, BitElectronics opened a few weeks ago.
The BitcoinStore would like to see Amazon, Newegg, Buy.com and similar operations eventually accept Bitcoins as well.
However, Amazon just announced its own virtual currency, called Amazon Coins, which will launch in May in the United States. They will be used to pay for apps, games and in-app items on Kindle Fire.