Key takeaways
- In 2025, you can have your digital wallet ready to pay with Bitcoin directly at 15,000 merchants and restaurants worldwide.
- Whether you’re using your own Bitcoin wallet to pay directly at accepting merchants or pay with cards, you’ll find plenty of options to buy food with Bitcoin.
- Bitcoin has evolved since Laszlo Hanyecz’s first purchase of food. A new whole payment structure has formed around Bitcoin, with innovative creative ways to use it to pay for food.
- Bitcoin payment processors, such as Bitrefill and BitPay, are now known globally. They handle thousands of transactions each month.
As Bitcoin becomes more accepted worldwide, many retailers, restaurants and food delivery services are embracing it. They now allow customers to pay for food with Bitcoin (BTC).
You can still buy food with Bitcoin, even if merchants don’t accept it directly. Use methods like crypto cards or crypto gift cards to make your purchase.
Bitcoin has long been recognized as a strong store of value, but its potential goes beyond that. As the world moves toward greater decentralization, Bitcoin is increasingly positioned to challenge traditional payment systems that rely on third-party approval. The primary purpose of Bitcoin is to bypass banks and financial institutions and enable direct payments with no censorship or confiscation.
Bitcoin’s creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, created a peer-to-peer electronic cash system to make people more independent from financial intermediaries, so you may as well start using the cryptocurrency as intended.
This article will show you how to pay for food with Bitcoin. You’ll learn different methods for grocery stores, restaurants and food retailers, both in-store and online.
Did you know? The first Bitcoin transaction to buy food was executed by Laszlo Hanyecz on May 22, 2010, which later became the famous Bitcoin Pizza Day. He paid 10,000 BTC for two pizzas, worth $40 at the time.
Can you buy food with Bitcoin?
The short answer is yes, definitely. Depending on the country you’re in, there may be different options presented to you.
The benefit of using a Bitcoin payment for food directly is to avoid the intermediary and higher costs while performing a pure Bitcoin transaction as Satoshi had intended.
Although most merchants do not accept BTC as payment yet, Bitcoin cards, gift cards and food delivery portals that accept Bitcoin, even indirectly, are pretty much available everywhere.
All you need to do is refill the card with some cryptocurrency, and the payment processor will directly exchange Bitcoin for local currency.
1. Pay for your food via direct Bitcoin payments
Although the number of merchants accepting Bitcoin is increasing globally, very few are still fully embracing the cryptocurrency as a payment method. When Bitcoin is accepted, normally, a Lightning wallet is used for fast payments and very low fees.
You can visit https://btcmap.org/ to find Bitcoin-friendly food companies around the world. Just choose a nearby area to see where you can use the digital currency.
Depending on the jurisdiction, fast food companies that accept Bitcoin include groups like Burger King and Subway. McDonald’s fully accepts BTC as a direct payment in El Salvador and as a pilot program in Lugano, Switzerland.
You can also pay with Bitcoin at specific restaurants such as Mastro’s (at selected US locations) and Tahini’s, a Canadian-Middle Eastern chain with some US presence. This crypto-friendly restaurant even holds Bitcoin as a reserve asset.
Accepting Bitcoin directly for online orders is less common unless the merchants partner with a delivery service that supports crypto. It’s possible to pay with Bitcoin for food delivery at companies like Manufy in the US that also accept Bitcoin directly.
You can also buy groceries with crypto directly at many Bitcoin-friendly grocery stores. Whole Foods in the UK, US and Canada accepts BTC via the Flexa network’s Spedn app at specific locations. One of South Africa’s largest grocery retailers, Pick n Pay, is a supermarket accepting Bitcoin payments. It rolled out Bitcoin payments across many of its stores following a successful pilot.
El Salvador is deservedly known as a Bitcoin country, and in most cases, restaurants, grocery stores and online retailers allow their customers to pay with Bitcoin directly.
Many small municipalities are adopting Bitcoin as a widely used currency. Other than El Salvador, in places like Lugano, Switzerland and Mossel Bay, South Africa, many merchants, mostly small retailers, accept Bitcoin as a legitimate method of payment.
How to pay with Bitcoin directly
- You can download a custodial or non-custodial Lightning wallet directly on your mobile.
- Transfer some Bitcoin there to pay for everyday expenses.
- Position your wallet to scan merchant QR codes.
- Your purchase finalizes in just a few seconds.
Did you know? Subway was the first major food chain to accept Bitcoin. The first Bitcoin purchase at a…
cointelegraph.com