Bitcoin is coming soon to a town near you. Or, more likely, it’s already there.

The five-year-old digital currency is increasingly being adopted by brick-and mortar businesses, including dentists, pet boutiques — even a small honey business in Utah.

In 2012, about 1,000 businesses used BitPay, the largest processor of Bitcoin payments. Today, more than 26,000 businesses worldwide use BitPay, said Tony Gallippi, its cofounder and CEO.

The majority of those firms are small businesses — about half are in the U.S. and the rest are international. And while a majority are online sellers, Gallippi said 20% are merchants with storefronts.

Most prominent in tech hubs like San Francisco, New York and Atlanta, the shops range from bakeries and wine stores to car dealers and mattress sellers.

BitPay estimates that there are currently about 5 million active digital wallets, or Bitcoin accounts, worldwide. But the currency has had its fair share of negative headlines lately for the volatile price, underground drug market busts, high-profile hacks and calls for regulation.

“There’s no government agency that’s backing Bitcoin,” said Jeffery Born, a finance professor at Northeastern University. But these risks aren’t deterring small businesses from embracing the virtual currency.

Craig Huntzinger started Bees Brothers in 2008 as a booth at a farmer’s market in Cache Valley, Utah. Over the years, he added a line of honey-flavored caramels and launched an online store. In January 2012, Huntzinger started accepting Bitcoin for online purchases, which he promoted on a Bitcoin forum.

“Initially I was fascinated by this idea of decentralized money and wanted to support it,” said Huntzinger. Then he started to appreciate some of its other benefits.

“It’s fast and it makes it easy to sell to anybody in the world,” he said. It also cuts down on processing fees. Credit cards usually charge 2% to 3% in fees; BitPay and similar processors charge between 0% and 1%.

Today, about 50% of Bees Brothers transactions — both wholesale and retail — are done with Bitcoins. Initially, they came largely from Seattle, New York, L.A. and San Francisco. Now, he said the orders are all over the world.

Nashville’s My Second Home, a high-end pet boarding and grooming business, began accepting Bitcoin in January. Chris Starko, its marketing director, said they felt it would give the business a competitive edge.

via My business accepts Bitcoins – Mar. 17, 2014.