What can you buy with cryptocurrency? It depends on where you live, is the short answer. NBA tickets, plane tickets or even a Tesla car, but now you can add dry cleaning to the list.
Dublin Cleaners and New Albany Cleaners has announced it is accepting cryptocurrencies.
“We are investing in it personally. Why shouldn’t the business participate in what’s going on,” said Brian Butler, the president of Dublin and New Albany Cleaners. “I started to pay attention to it after Thanksgiving because it started to make a move. My wife and I invested ourselves in early January.”
The third-generation business went cashless a few years ago. The brick-and-mortar locations now have settlement modules similar to credit card terminals for cryptocurrency.
“It absolutely is like cash. It’s just digital cash. So we use Coinbase and they can handle either institutional or individual investment and purchase. And once you own it they can also handle exchange,” said Butler. “Since the value relative to the dollar is constantly influx the absolute second the transaction occurs… it will transfer exactly that amount of whatever cryptocurrency and I think we have about seven we can accept.”
Butler says the pandemic has pushed down volume of sales because less people are driving to the office or are going out to dinner, but mobile deliveries have accelerated. Mobile deliveries can now be paid for with crypto through their secure website.
“Our business, just like any other individual has money balanced in a number of accounts, long or short cash needs or capital accounts. Believe me, we have been really focused on our long-term savings accounts here in the last year,” said Butler. “We decided like any investment when we see it peaking, we may decide to convert some to cash as needed. If it’s at a low point, we will just try to hold and wait for it to rise again.”
Butler says no customers have used the service to date, and at some point, a minimum policy may be put in place, similar to a credit card.