When El Salvador first made Bitcoin a legal tender in October 2021, there were 10 million users that had accessed the Bitcoin Lightning Network. As of April 2022, this number has increased by 800%, indicating a significant rise in Bitcoin adoption around the world.
Bitcoin is being used for commercial transactions in a range of different industries. From trading to buying houses, Bitcoin has reinvented the way people use and send money over the internet. The cryptocurrency is currently being accepted by more than 15,000 businesses around the world, with an average of 13,682 Bitcoin transactions going through every hour.
Using data collected from coinmap, read along to see which 10 cities around the world are currently leading in Bitcoin adoption.
Since 2013, a few different reporters have experimented surviving off Bitcoin in the San Francisco area for an entire week. While they succeeded in ordering food, Ubers and even had the chance to go on a wine tour, most of them had some trouble finding merchants that would accept the cryptocurrency. Fast forwarding to today, more than 440 businesses in San Francisco have started to accept Bitcoin, which is more than any other U.S. State.
With the famous Silicon Valley found in the San Francisco Bay Area, this may not come as a surprise. This city located in the North of California is home to some of the world’s largest tech corporations and recognized globally as a hub for innovation. In addition to the large number of businesses accepting Bitcoin, the area also has a total of 469 Bitcoin ATMs.
In terms of buying real estate with cryptocurrency, the province of British Columbia has been leading as an example. Just last year, a resident of the Okanagan region a few hours outside of Vancouver listed his house for 12.25 BTC stating “I believe in this technology so much, I am not an innovator by any means, but I’m an early adopter. So I feel I’m going to be rewarded for that.” It is without a doubt that their most populated city would become a leader in Bitcoin adoption.
In fact, the world’s very first Bitcoin ATM opened at Waves Coffee House in downtown Vancouver in October 2013. The city and surrounding suburbs currently have more than 100 different merchants that accept Bitcoin, and there are more than 200 different places to buy Bitcoin.
If you’re looking to travel to Amsterdam, you’ll be able to buy your flight, accommodation, food, and even a bike or boat tour using Bitcoin. Since 2013, Amsterdam has aimed to become the Bitcoin Capital of the World as it continues to rise as one of Europe’s main financial centres.
Pre-pandemic, the city had even started hosting a number of Bitcoin-related events including Bitcoin Wednesday, Bitcoin Embassy, Blockchain Talks, and Day of the Crypto. Amsterdam now has more than 74 merchants that accept Bitcoin as payment.
Recognized for being the biggest city in Slovenia, Ljubljana is moving towards becoming a crypto-startup hub in Central Europe. In 2019, Slovenia had more retail locations accepting Bitcoin Cash than the entire United States, revealing how much they have embraced blockchain and cryptocurrency technologies. Now, their capital has grown to include more than 200 merchants accepting Bitcoin in commercial transactions.
The city has even claimed to be working on the world’s first crypto friendly shopping mall out of an existing shopping centre that is coincidentally called BTC City. This shopping mall that is currently the largest in the city is expected to offer a number of different services that can be paid for using Bitcoin through their own transaction processing system called Elipay. In celebration of this project, the Secretary of State Tadej Slapnik purchased a cup of coffee for the Prime Minister from the mall using cryptocurrency. Representatives of BTC City made a statement afterwards explaining that “The purpose of his visit was to open the Beyond 4.0 international conference, dedicated to digital society and blockchain, and to get acquainted with BTC City’s strategy to become a Bitcoin City”
Known for being the country’s financial centre and the city with one of the highest concentrations of tech startups in the world, Tel Aviv has made great efforts to integrate cryptocurrency in their economy. In an effort to support small businesses and lower-income communities in the area, Tel Aviv ran a month-long program distributing their own digital currency to merchants and locals that needed support. The city now has more than 20 merchants that accept Bitcoin as payment.
Not to mention, Israel’s Bitcoin Meetup Group is among the most active Bitcoin related groups in the world with a few thousand members. They have even planned a party to celebrate the Bitcoin Halving that occurred in May 2020, but have postponed it all the way to January 2023 due to the pandemic.
This coastal city in New Hampshire has found to be a strong contender for one of the most cryptocurrency-friendly cities in the world. Residents of Portsmouth have been found to drive miles to access the Bitcoin ATM when it was first installed in the Seacoast Repertory Theatre in 2016. The city is even home to a Bitcoin Shoppe, where items are only available for sale using the cryptocurrency.
In fact, in March of this year, Mayor Deaglan McEachern began allowing residents to pay their outstanding debts to the city and other bills using Bitcoin. He explained that “The learnings of going through this process is I think city hall has learned more about cryptocurrency and blockchain and how to use those to better city services, is basically what I want us to do.”
Earlier this month, Miami hosted the largest conference dedicated to Bitcoin, Bitcoin 2022, where Mayor Francis Suarez unveiled the Miami Bull. As he revealed the statue, he declared, “Welcome to the future of finance.”. Miami’s Mayor, who had stated in February that he would start accepting his next paycheck “100% in Bitcoin,” unveiled the statue while wearing his Bitcoin branded shoes in a show of support for the cryptocurrency.
Mayor Suarez has been on a mission to turn Miami into a cryptocurrency hub and has seen a lot of success in doing so with several businesses accepting Bitcoin as payment. This includes the chain restaurant Miami’s Pizza Bar that began accepting Bitcoin in exchange for their food. The city is also planning to start offering pay to workers in Bitcoin.
As part of the first country to accept Bitcoin as legal tender, the popular tourist destination El Zonte is working on a project to transform itself into a Bitcoin Beach. The goal of this project is to give locals a different way to transact and embrace this new technology. What is unique about this area is that they do not convert Bitcoin into fiat to process transactions. From street food to taxes, Bitcoin can be used with the Bitcoin Beach wallet that is being developed by the government for low-fee transactions.
