How to Pay With Crypto on Amazon Marketplace
Disclaimer: this post has been
updated to reflect the June 2020 closure of the Purse app. Amazon
dominates the world of e-commerce. Once nothing more than an online
bookstore, Amazon has grown into a titan of technology and a
retail giant, able to compete with the largest brick-and-mortar
superstores. It is hard to overstate its influence on the online world.
The digital age has given life to more than only online shopping.
Cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and others have emerged as
legitimate alternatives to traditional cash, just as Amazon provides an
alternative to conventional retail. It seems natural that the two should go hand
in hand. With the convenience of Amazon and the advantages of
crypto, why shouldn’t you use them together? Why Pay With Crypto?
There are more than 5,000 different cryptocurrencies you can choose from with
varying attributes, but they all work according to the same basic system. No
matter what specific cryptocurrency you use, it runs on a technology
called blockchain — a digital ledger that is completely decentralized and
unalterable. Given its novelty and uniqueness, paying with crypto can
seem like an intimidating or even suspicious prospect. But crypto’s
decentralization means that crypto transactions don’t rely on third
parties to verify or process a payment. Without a go-between, there are
no extra handling fees like there usually are with banks. The lack of an
intermediary also means that the payments take effect instantly instead of
waiting on a bank for processing. Although many online retailers
accept crypto payments, the largest one does not. At least, not
yet. It shouldn’t surprise you that Amazon does not officially
accept crypto right now. The company has many standards and
requirements for selling and buying products on its website, so it makes sense
that it has been slow to accept a decentralized technology. But there may
be a few signs that they will accept cryptocurrency in the future. In
2018, Amazon purchased three crypto-related domain names, and they
already offer a couple of blockchain-based services. They also created a
currency called Amazon Coin in 2013. But unlike other cryptocurrencies,
Amazon Coin does not run on a blockchain, and it never took off. Even
though Amazon does not accept crypto as a form of payment,
you can still use it to buy things from them. Several third-party
services allow you to spend crypto on the e-commerce giant. Many
of these extensions and sites for using crypto on Amazon work
similarly, usually exchanging coins or tokens for Amazon gift cards. Most
of them also center around Bitcoin, arguably the most popular
cryptocurrency. Determining the best of these services depends on
what appeals most to you. Below, you will find a list of the most noteworthy
ones with explanations of how to use them. Even though you may not see your
country on the list of accepted regional Amazon sites for these
services, as long as the Amazon seller for the item you want ships
to your country, you could still use the service. SpectroCoin offers several
cryptocurrency services, including the option to exchange
crypto for Amazon gift cards valid in Germany, Italy, Spain and
France. By opening a SpectroCoin account, you can use their services as a
wallet for bitcoin or other cryptos. On their website, you can
fill up your wallet and then select “Top-Up and Vouchers” under the
“Withdraw” menu. The site will then give you a menu to select your country and
order a gift card. When you complete the purchase, you’ll instantly receive a
voucher code to spend on Amazon. Like Gyft, Bitrefill lets you buy
various gift cards with bitcoin, ether, Litecoin, Dogecoin and DASH. On
Bitrefill’s site, you can select the Amazon voucher you want for either
India, Canada, Japan, Australia or the United Arab Emirates, and then choose
your desired crypto for payment. The site will then give
you a QR code to access through your crypto wallet. Once your
payment is confirmed, you can use your gift card immediately on
Amazon. On Purse, you can exchange bitcoin for
Amazon items on Amazon US, UK, Canada and Japan. On the mainpage,
just type in any item you are interested in on Amazon in the
search bar, and then add it to your cart. You can also download the Purse
Chrome browser extension, connect it to your Purse account, and then visit
Amazon, where you will be shown the price you could save on an item if
you pay in bitcoin under the item’s price— you can then click on the Purse
widget right on Amazon and directly add the item to your Purse cart.
Alternatively, you can add your item to a new public Amazon
wishlist. After you make this wishlist and add your desired item, copy
the wishlist link under “Send list to others” and paste it into the search bar
on Purse’s “Import Wish List” page. The site also features a slider you can use
to search for discounts of a desired amount — the higher the discount, the
longer the potential delivery time. Purse works when “Earners” exchange their
own Amazon gift cards for your cryptocurrency, hence the price raise if
you want your item faster. (Side note, as of publication time, one Purse user
had hundreds of open Amazon orders in America for a variety of Lego play
sets awaiting fulfillment by “Earners.” When Purse customer support was asked if
this was a glitch or if someone really loved both Legos and using Bitcoin that
much, they confirmed that a real user did have that many open orders for Legos.
Go figure.) In the past, crypto payment processor Moon allowed you to
spend your crypto right on Amazon using a similar widget to
Purse’s. However, Moon has temporarily disabled their Amazon transactions
during their integration with new partners for “Moon v2,” according to their
customer support team. Gyft, which is still an active site that allows you to
buy gift cards for hundreds of sites with crypto as a payment option,
does not currently have Amazon gift cards available. Although the site
was previously one of the ways to pay with crypto on the retail giant,
Amazon allegedly stopped accepting Gyft gift cards in 2017. Crypto
exchange platform Paybis also wants you to think that you can use your
crypto to buy items on Amazon, but it’s not exactly the case.
Although there is a now-deleted Paybis blog post entitled, “Purchase
Amazon.com eGift Card on Paybis.com” from 2017, the current Paybis how-to
on crypto-to-Amazon purchases involves you first transferring your funds
to your credit or debit card, and then buying an Amazon gift card…which begs the
question, isn’t this just you spending fiat directly on Amazon with no crypto in
sight? This article contains links to third-party websites or other
content for information purposes only (“Third-Party Sites”). The Third-Party
Sites are not under the control of CoinMarketCap, and
CoinMarketCap is not responsible for the content of any Third-Party Site,
including without limitation any link contained in a Third-Party Site, or any
changes or updates to a Third-Party Site. CoinMarketCap is providing these links
to you only as a convenience, and the inclusion of any link does not imply
endorsement, approval or recommendation by CoinMarketCap of the site or any
association with its operators. This article is intended to be used and must be
used for informational purposes only. It is important to do your own research
and analysis before making any material decisions related to any of the products
or services described. This article is not intended as, and shall not be
construed as, financial advice.
Disclaimer: this post has been
updated to reflect the June 2020 closure of the Purse app. Amazon
dominates the world of e-commerce. Once nothing more than an online
bookstore, Amazon has grown into a titan of technology and a
retail giant, able to compete with the largest brick-and-mortar
superstores. It is hard to overstate its influence on the online world.
The digital age has given life to more than only online shopping.
Cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and others have emerged as
legitimate alternatives to traditional cash, just as Amazon provides an
alternative to conventional retail. It seems natural that the two should go hand
in hand. With the convenience of Amazon and the advantages of
crypto, why shouldn’t you use them together? Why Pay With Crypto?
There are more than 5,000 different cryptocurrencies you can choose from with
varying attributes, but they all work according to the same basic system. No
matter what specific cryptocurrency you use, it runs on a technology
called blockchain — a digital ledger that is completely decentralized and
unalterable. Given its novelty and uniqueness, paying with crypto can
seem like an intimidating or even suspicious prospect. But crypto’s
decentralization means that crypto transactions don’t rely on third
parties to verify or process a payment. Without a go-between, there are
no extra handling fees like there usually are with banks. The lack of an
intermediary also means that the payments take effect instantly instead of
waiting on a bank for processing. Although many online retailers
accept crypto payments, the largest one does not. At least, not
yet. It shouldn’t surprise you that Amazon does not officially
accept crypto right now. The company has many standards and
requirements for selling and buying products on its website, so it makes sense
that it has been slow to accept a decentralized technology. But there may
be a few signs that they will accept cryptocurrency in the future. In
2018, Amazon purchased three crypto-related domain names, and they
already offer a couple of blockchain-based services. They also created a
currency called Amazon Coin in 2013. But unlike other cryptocurrencies,
Amazon Coin does not run on a blockchain, and it never took off. Even
though Amazon does not accept crypto as a form of payment,
you can still use it to buy things from them. Several third-party
services allow you to spend crypto on the e-commerce giant. Many
of these extensions and sites for using crypto on Amazon work
similarly, usually exchanging coins or tokens for Amazon gift cards. Most
of them also center around Bitcoin, arguably the most popular
cryptocurrency. Determining the best of these services depends on
what appeals most to you. Below, you will find a list of the most noteworthy
ones with explanations of how to use them. Even though you may not see your
country on the list of accepted regional Amazon sites for these
services, as long as the Amazon seller for the item you want ships
to your country, you could still use the service. SpectroCoin offers several
cryptocurrency services, including the option to exchange
crypto for Amazon gift cards valid in Germany, Italy, Spain and
France. By opening a SpectroCoin account, you can use their services as a
wallet for bitcoin or other cryptos. On their website, you can
fill up your wallet and then select “Top-Up and Vouchers” under the
“Withdraw” menu. The site will then give you a menu to select your country and
order a gift card. When you complete the purchase, you’ll instantly receive a
voucher code to spend on Amazon. Like Gyft, Bitrefill lets you buy
various gift cards with bitcoin, ether, Litecoin, Dogecoin and DASH. On
Bitrefill’s site, you can select the Amazon voucher you want for either
India, Canada, Japan, Australia or the United Arab Emirates, and then choose
your desired crypto for payment. The site will then give
you a QR code to access through your crypto wallet. Once your
payment is confirmed, you can use your gift card immediately on
Amazon. On Purse, you can exchange bitcoin for
Amazon items on Amazon US, UK, Canada and Japan. On the mainpage,
just type in any item you are interested in on Amazon in the
search bar, and then add it to your cart. You can also download the Purse
Chrome browser extension, connect it to your Purse account, and then visit
Amazon, where you will be shown the price you could save on an item if
you pay in bitcoin under the item’s price— you can then click on the Purse
widget right on Amazon and directly add the item to your Purse cart.
Alternatively, you can add your item to a new public Amazon
wishlist. After you make this wishlist and add your desired item, copy
the wishlist link under “Send list to others” and paste it into the search bar
on Purse’s “Import Wish List” page. The site also features a slider you can use
to search for discounts of a desired amount — the higher the discount, the
longer the potential delivery time. Purse works when “Earners” exchange their
own Amazon gift cards for your cryptocurrency, hence the price raise if
you want your item faster. (Side note, as of publication time, one Purse user
had hundreds of open Amazon orders in America for a variety of Lego play
sets awaiting fulfillment by “Earners.” When Purse customer support was asked if
this was a glitch or if someone really loved both Legos and using Bitcoin that
much, they confirmed that a real user did have that many open orders for Legos.
Go figure.) In the past, crypto payment processor Moon allowed you to
spend your crypto right on Amazon using a similar widget to
Purse’s. However, Moon has temporarily disabled their Amazon transactions
during their integration with new partners for “Moon v2,” according to their
customer support team. Gyft, which is still an active site that allows you to
buy gift cards for hundreds of sites with crypto as a payment option,
does not currently have Amazon gift cards available. Although the site
was previously one of the ways to pay with crypto on the retail giant,
Amazon allegedly stopped accepting Gyft gift cards in 2017. Crypto
exchange platform Paybis also wants you to think that you can use your
crypto to buy items on Amazon, but it’s not exactly the case.
Although there is a now-deleted Paybis blog post entitled, “Purchase
Amazon.com eGift Card on Paybis.com” from 2017, the current Paybis how-to
on crypto-to-Amazon purchases involves you first transferring your funds
to your credit or debit card, and then buying an Amazon gift card…which begs the
question, isn’t this just you spending fiat directly on Amazon with no crypto in
sight? This article contains links to third-party websites or other
content for information purposes only (“Third-Party Sites”). The Third-Party
Sites are not under the control of CoinMarketCap, and
CoinMarketCap is not responsible for the content of any Third-Party Site,
including without limitation any link contained in a Third-Party Site, or any
changes or updates to a Third-Party Site. CoinMarketCap is providing these links
to you only as a convenience, and the inclusion of any link does not imply
endorsement, approval or recommendation by CoinMarketCap of the site or any
association with its operators. This article is intended to be used and must be
used for informational purposes only. It is important to do your own research
and analysis before making any material decisions related to any of the products
or services described. This article is not intended as, and shall not be
construed as, financial advice.
