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    From coffee shops to airlines: Who accepts Bitcoin, Ether and XRP in 2025

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    From coffee shops to airlines: Who accepts Bitcoin, Ether and XRP in 2025

    Key takeaways:

    • Coffee shops, fast-food chains like Starbucks and Sheetz and retailers like Microsoft and Home Depot are accepting crypto payments via apps and third-party processors.

    • More and more platforms are gradually enabling the use of Bitcoin, Ether and XRP for large-scale travel and airline reservations.

    • Luxury brands, high-end car dealerships and real estate developers are integrating crypto payments for premium goods and property.

    • Payment processors can make it simple for small businesses to accept crypto by instantly converting it to fiat currency and reducing compliance costs.

    Cryptocurrencies are no longer fringe ideas in finance. As of 2025, more and more businesses are embracing digital assets, especially Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) and XRP (XRP) — both as payment options and strategic assets.

    Why these three? Each has strong brand recognition, decent liquidity and different strengths: BTC as the store-of-value, ETH with its smart contract ecosystem and XRP with fast settlement and cross-border payments. Together, they cover what businesses need: trust, functionality and speed.

    This article explores where BTC, ETH and XRP are used, from simple everyday purchases to large-scale airline integrations.

    Everyday crypto transactions: Coffee shops, restaurants, retailers

    For many crypto holders, the first real test is whether you can spend BTC, ETH or XRP like cash: a cup of coffee, a sandwich or groceries. XRP tends to lag behind BTC and ETH when it comes to everyday purchases: Fewer small shops accept XRP directly, as its strength usually shows in back-end or cross-border payments rather than point-of-sale in cafes.

    Coffee shops and small eateries

    So far in 2025, paying for coffee with crypto isn’t some sci-fi fantasy anymore. Plenty of chains and indie spots have already made it part of the daily grind. At Starbucks, for example, you can grab a Bitrefill gift card and cover your caramel macchiato with Ether or Bitcoin.

    Apps like Flexa’s SPEDN wallet, or even reloadable digital gift cards, make it easy to swap tokens for lattes.

    Even convenience stores are in it. Sheetz accepts Bitcoin, Ether and a handful of other coins at checkout. And if you’re more of an XRP loyalist, directories like Cryptwerk point you to smaller eateries happy to turn tokens into tacos or burgers.

    Restaurants and fast food places

    Select McDonald’s outlets in crypto-hot zones accept Bitcoin through payment apps, enabling fast food payments with digital dollars.

    In Europe and the US, major fast-food chains like Subway and Burger King continue to accept crypto payments, often through third-party gift card services or payment processors. While not a direct, in-house integration for every location, it’s a simple way for consumers to spend their Bitcoin.

    Steak ‘n Shake joined the party in May 2025, rolling out BTC payments nationwide, crediting it for an 11% sales boost by attracting tech-savvy diners. Chipotle and Baskin-Robbins are on board, too, via BitPay integrations, where ETH, BTC or XRP funds your burrito bowl or scoop.

    Retail and online stores

    AT&T lets you settle phone bills with ETH or BTC, dodging those pesky late fees. Many online and some physical retailers accept XRP via gateways like CoinGate.

    Big tech firms have also been supportive: Microsoft accepts BTC directly or through processors, whereas Newegg also supports ETH for purchases on-site, and Overstock welcomes XRP as well. AMC Theatres accepts Bitcoin and other digital assets for its products and services, from Xbox content to movie tickets.

    Beyond these giants, e-commerce platforms like Shopify have democratized the use of digital currency by making it simple for millions of small and medium-sized businesses to include a cryptocurrency checkout option.

    Major chain retailers like Home Depot, Lowe’s and Ikea accept cryptocurrency in the form of Bitrefill and BitPay gift cards, so you can use ETH to finance your home renovation.

    Scaling up: Travel and luxury

    As crypto payments mature, many travel services and airlines, directly or via intermediaries, are offering bookings via BTC, ETH and sometimes XRP. When it comes to flights and hotel booking platforms, sites like Travala.com allow travelers to make bookings with BTC, ETH and many other supported digital assets.

    In the near future, Emirates flyers will be able to snag first-class seats with digital dollars, no forex fuss. The UAE’s luxury liner will work with Crypto.com to accept crypto. In Europe, AirBaltic has been accepting crypto since 2014 and has processed thousands of crypto transactions.

    High-end brands and luxury car dealerships are also entering the crypto payment space. For example, Post Oak Motor Cars in the US accepts Bitcoin for buying super-luxury cars via BitPay. In Europe, platforms like BitCars have built a crypto-only marketplace for premium and classic vehicles.

    High-end brands are also joining in: Gucci and Ralph Lauren have continued to expand their crypto payment options at select flagship stores, particularly for their more exclusive collections.

    Did you know? Alternative Airlines is a notable example since it supports over 600 airlines globally and allows payment using 100+ cryptocurrencies, including XRP.

    Financial services, remittances and institutional adoption

    When the usage moves beyond consumer transactions into payments infrastructure, institutional use, remittances and treasury operations, different strengths of BTC, ETH and XRP become more visible.

    Remittance and cross-border payments

    XRP is often positioned here because its consensus-based ledger and Ripple’s infrastructure are designed for lower cost and faster settlement for cross-border transfers. There are businesses such as Mercury FX and Cuallix that have adopted or trialed XRP for such uses.

    Payment processors and gateways

    In order to lessen their exposure to volatility, businesses are increasingly accepting cryptocurrency thanks to platforms like PayPal, BitPay and NOWPayments. In particular, PayPal has made it possible for retailers to use more than 100 cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, Ether and XRP.

    Treasury and corporate holdings

    Some companies, such as BitMine, SharpLink Gaming and VivoPower, include crypto in their treasury portfolios for strategic purposes, inflation hedging or to get further involved in the cryptocurrency market.

    How can more small businesses accept crypto?

    The development of more user-friendly technologies and the larger financial ecosystem holds the answer.

    Step 1: Choose a payment processor

    Payment processors like BitPay, Coinbase Commerce and CoinGate make it easier for small businesses to integrate crypto payments with little technical know-how. By instantly converting cryptocurrencies into fiat currency, these processors eliminate the risk of price fluctuations.

    Step 2: Reduce compliance costs

    Small business owners’ financial and legal burden can be lessened by automated tax reporting systems and more open regulatory frameworks.

    Step 3: Embrace a wider variety of digital assets

    With technical barriers lowered and compliance simplified, businesses can confidently accept a broader range of cryptocurrencies.

    This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.

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    How to use Grok 4 to research coins before you invest

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    How to use Grok 4 to research coins before you invest

    Key takeaways:

    • A repeatable pre-screen using Grok 4 turns raw hype into structured signals and filters out low-quality projects.

    • Automating fundamental summaries, contract checks and red-flag identification with Grok 4 speeds up research.

    • Cross-referencing sentiment with development activity using Grok 4 helps distinguish organic momentum from coordinated hype.

    • Analyzing past sentiment spikes with corresponding price moves helps identify which signals deserve attention in trading.

    The primary struggle for a crypto investor is not a lack of information but a relentless deluge of it. News websites, social media feeds and onchain data streams constantly churn with updates that can be overwhelming. XAI’s Grok 4 aims to change that. It pulls live data straight from X, pairs it with real-time analysis and filters signals from noise. For a market that is heavily influenced by narrative momentum and community chatter, this is indeed a notable capability.

    This article provides insights into how Grok 4 can be used for research in crypto trading.

    What Grok 4 actually adds to coin research

    Grok 4 combines a real-time feed of X conversations with web DeepSearch and a higher-reasoning “Grok Think.” That means you can surface sudden narrative spikes on X, ask the model to search broader web sources for context and request a reasoned assessment rather than a one-line summary. XAI’s product notes and recent coverage confirm that DeepSearch and expanded reasoning are core selling points.

    Why this matters for pre-investment research:

    • Narrative-driven assets react to social velocity. Grok 4 can flag mention spikes fast.

    • DeepSearch helps you go from a noisy tweet storm to a consolidated set of primary documents: white papers, token contracts and press releases.

    That said, Grok 4 is an insights tool, not a safety net. Recent incidents around moderation and response behavior mean you must validate outputs with independent sources. That’s why you should ideally treat Grok 4 as a rapid investigator, not as the final arbiter.

    Did you know? Keeping a post-trade journal helps you spot what’s working and what’s not. Log your signals, reasoning, fills, slippage and final profit and loss (PnL). Then use Grok 4 to spot recurring mistakes and recommend smarter adjustments.

    Fast-start, repeatable coin pre-screen using Grok 4

    Catching a coin’s name trending on X or in a Telegram chat isn’t enough to justify putting capital at risk. Social buzz moves fast, and most spikes fade before price action catches up, or worse, they might be the result of coordinated shilling. That’s why the next step is to turn raw noise into structured signals you can actually rank and compare.

    A repeatable pre-screen process forces discipline: You filter out hype-only tokens, highlight projects with verifiable fundamentals and cut down the time wasted chasing every rumor.

    With Grok 4, you can automate the first round of filtering — for example, summarizing white papers, spotting tokenomics red flags and checking liquidity. By the time you get to manual research, you are already down to the 10% of projects that actually deserve your attention.

    Here’s how you do it:

    Step 1: Build a brief watchlist

    Pick 10-20 tokens you actually care about. Keep it focused by theme, such as layer 2s, oracles and memecoins.

    Step 2: Do a rapid sentiment and velocity scan with Grok 4

    Ask Grok 4 for the last 24-hour X mentions, tone and whether hype is organic or suspicious.

    Prompt example:

    Step 3: Auto-summarize fundamentals

    Have Grok 4 condense the white paper, roadmap and tokenomics into digestible points to prioritize fundamentals that highlight structural risk.

    Prompt example:

    • “Summarize the white paper for [TICKER] into 8 bullet points: use case, consensus, issuance schedule, vesting, token utility, known audits, core contributors, unresolved issues.”

    Step 4: Contract and audit quick-check
    Ask Grok 4 to return the verified contract address and links to audits. Then cross-check on Etherscan or a relevant blockchain explorer. If unverifiable, mark as high risk.

    Step 5: Onchain confirmations

    Hit onchain dashboards: fees, revenue, inflows, volume on top centralized exchanges (CEXs) and total value locked (TVL) if a decentralized finance (DeFi) token. Use DefiLlama, CoinGecko or respective chain explorers. If onchain activity contradicts hype (low activity, large centralized wallets dominating), it’s a signal to downgrade.

    Step 6: Liquidity and order-book sanity check

    Look for thin order books and small liquidity pools. Ask Grok 4 to search for reported liquidity pools and automated market maker (AMM) sizes, then verify with onchain queries.

    Step 7: Red flag checklist

    Token unlocks in 90 days, concentration >40% in top five wallets, no third-party audit, unverifiable team IDs. Any hit moves the ticker to “manual deep-dive.”

    Combine Grok 4 outputs with market and onchain signals

    Once a coin passes the quick screen, the next step is to dig into the data that tells you whether a project has staying power or is just another short-lived pump.

    Step 1: Build a confirmation rule set

    Having clear rules prevents you from chasing hype and forces you to check fundamentals, activity and liquidity before acting.

    Example rule set (all must pass):

    • Sentiment surge on X confirmed by Grok 4, with at least three reputable sources linked.

    • Onchain active addresses are up 20% week-over-week.

    • No large, imminent unlocks in tokenomics.

    • Sufficient liquidity for the trade size in the onchain AMM or DEX order books.

    Step 2: Ask Grok 4 to cross-reference

    Cross-referencing with fundamentals and development activity filters out short-term buzz that isn’t backed by progress or transparency.

    Prompt example:

    “Evaluate how likely the current X-driven pump for [TICKER] is organic. Cross-reference recent GitHub commits, official releases, known vesting schedules and the largest onchain transfers in the past 72 hours. Provide a confidence score 0-10 and list five specific verification links.”

    Step 3: Whale flow and exchange flow
    Checking whale and exchange activity helps you anticipate sell pressure that sentiment scans alone can’t capture.

    Don’t rely on sentiment alone. Use onchain analytics to detect large transfers to exchanges or deposits from smart contracts tied to token unlocks. If Grok reports “large inflows to Binance in the last 24 hours,” for example, it can indicate increased sell-side risk.

    Advanced backtest of Grok 4 for crypto research 

    If you want to move from ad hoc trades to a repeatable system, you need to build structure into how you use Grok 4. Start with historical-news reaction backtests: Use Grok 4 to pull past X-sentiment spikes for the token and match them with price reaction windows (one hour, six hours, 24 hours). Export the pairs and run a backtest that simulates slippage and execution costs; if average slippage exceeds the expected edge, discard that signal type.

    Next, build a “signal engine” and a rule-based executor. This can include Grok’s API or webhooks for alerts, a layer that applies your confirmation rules and a human-in-the-loop to approve execution. At a larger scale, confirmed signals can feed into a limit-order engine with automated position sizing using Kelly or fixed risk-per-trade rules.

    Finally, enforce safety and governance. Given moderation issues and risks of single-source reliance, set a hard rule that no Grok-generated signal can directly trigger live trades without external verification. Multiple independent checks should always precede capital deployment.

    This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.

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    ING, UniCredit join banks developing euro stablecoin under MiCA

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    ING, UniCredit join banks developing euro stablecoin under MiCA

    A group of major European banks has joined forces to launch a euro-pegged stablecoin in compliance with Europe’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) framework.

    Dutch lender ING and Italy’s UniCredit are among nine banks participating in the development of a euro-denominated stablecoin, according to a joint statement published by ING on Thursday.

    Built in compliance with Europe’s MiCA regulation, the stablecoin is expected to be issued in the second half of 2026, with a mission of becoming a trusted European payment standard in the digital ecosystem.

    The announcement noted that the initiative aligns with Europe’s plans to provide a local alternative to the US-dominated stablecoin market and to contribute to the EU’s strategic autonomy in payments.

    Banks from eight EU member states initially involved

    Alongside ING and UniCredit, the European stablecoin initiative also includes Spain’s CaixaBank, Denmark’s Danske Bank, Austria’s Raiffeisen Bank International, Belgium’s KBC, Sweden’s SEB, Germany’s DekaBank and another Italian lender, Banca Sella.

    The founding members have also established a new company headquartered in the Netherlands, ING’s home country, to oversee the development and management of the stablecoin.

    An excerpt from the stablecoin project announcement by ING. Source: ING

    The banking consortium said in the joint announcement that it remains open to other banks joining the stablecoin project.

    24/7 access to cross-border payments

    According to the statement by ING, the projected euro stablecoin is expected to provide “near-instant, low-cost payments and settlements,” enabling 24/7 access to cross-border payments.

    The stablecoin is also set to offer programmable payments and improvements to supply chain management and digital asset settlements, which can vary from securities to cryptocurrencies.

    Related: Société Générale taps Bullish to debut MiCA-licensed USDCV stablecoin

    “Digital payments are key for new euro-denominated payments and financial market infrastructure,” said Floris Lugt, ING’s digital asset lead and joint public representative for the project.

    “We believe this development requires an industry-wide approach, and it’s imperative that banks adopt the same standards,” he added.

    Digital euro delayed to 2029

    The announcement of a joint stablecoin project by leading European banks came shortly after European Central Bank Executive Board member Piero Cipollone estimated that the EU’s digital euro could become a reality in 2029.

    Cipollone, who also serves as deputy governor of the Bank of Italy, noted that the European Parliament is widely expected to outline a general framework for the EU’s proposed central bank digital currency (CBDC) by May 2026.

    Source: Coin Bureau

    Given the prolonged development of Europe’s potential CBDC — which has been under consideration since 2020 — some online commentators described the new stablecoin launch as a “digital euro’s obituary notice.”

    Related: US House to consider retroactive CBDC ban in market structure bill

    Others have speculated that the upcoming stablecoin could serve as a “backdoor CBDC,” although, by definition, a CBDC is issued directly by a central bank.

    The preference for stablecoins over CBDCs is not unprecedented. In early 2025, the Trump administration made a historic decision to ban CBDC development in the US, while simultaneously committing to promoting US dollar-backed stablecoins as a key component of its financial strategy.