The UK’s only high street gold bullion showroom, Sharps Pixley, located on St James’s Street in London, will be accepting Bitcoin (BTC) as payment for gold.
The cryptocurrency will be accepted for online and over the counter purchases.
Sharps Pixley says they ‘are bridging the gap between the world’s oldest currency and its newest, offering new and existing customers the means to exchange and diversify digital currency for a real, tangible asset which they can store and trade at Sharps Pixley’.
Mustafa Al Bassam, security advisor at Secure Trading and blockchain expert, says, “There is pressure for particular types of businesses to accept Bitcoin. With the recent substantial gains in the price of Bitcoin, those who made large profits will want to diversify and spend their Bitcoin. A trade of a traditional high-value tangible asset for new intangible new highlights the increasing digitisation of value and currency. People no longer find the physical aspects of an asset to be relevant any more, as it still comes down to numbers on a screen. What’s important is the scarcity and utility of an asset. Bitcoin is scarce like gold, but more easily transferable. Such trade allows those who hold Bitcoin as an investment asset to easily diversify into gold without the costs and complexity of having to convert their Bitcoin to pounds first.”