Gyft Offers Bonus for Purchases Made with Bitcoins; ATM Tops $1 Million in Volume (Dec. 3, 2013)
Consumers who purchased gift cards from Gyft.com on Thanksgiving and Black Friday received a discount on future purchases if they paid with Bitcoin. Gyft Inc., a San Francisco-based mobile gift card company, last week announced that 4 percent of purchases made with Bitcoin would be converted to Gyft Points that customers could use toward gift card purchases.
Gyft enables consumers to buy gift cards using their mobile phones from more than 200 retailers, including CVS, Foot Locker, Kmart, Old Navy, Sears and Target. For non-Bitcoin users, Gyft provided 3 percent points back on PayPal purchases, and 2 percent points back on credit card purchases.
Less than 30 days after Robocoin installed what it’s calling the world’s first Bitcoin ATM in Waves Coffee House in Vancouver, British Columbia, the Las Vegas-based ATM manufacturer announced the machine has exceeded CAD$1 million in volume from 1,576 transactions.
“Those familiar with Bitcoin have long lamented the historically arduous exchange process and have been delighted by Robocoin’s ease of exchange,” according to Robocoin’s blog. “Some customers used their newly purchased Bitcoins to buy coffee at the Bitcoin-accepting Waves location.”
The volatile currency made headlines last week when it was trading at a new high—$1,000. This week’s average value is $1,114.94, according to Bitcoin exchange Mt.Gox K.K…
