Silicon Valley jeweler and gemologist Stephen Silver says cryptocurrency has led to millions in revenue for his business, Stephen Silver Fine Jewelry, over the past few years and now accounts for nearly 20 percent of sales.
“Cryptocurrency has surpassed the volume of retail credit card purchases in the company in a very short time period,” Silver said. “We’ve created revenue that the company would not even enjoy without being able to accept cryptocurrency. … Large sums of money are where we are finding cryptocurrency to be a huge advantage.”
The company announced in 2014 that it would “reflect the tech savvy of its clientele” by accepting Bitcoin as payment.
Silver said in a press release that many of his family’s clients are “gemstone collectors and tech-industry figures from Silicon Valley and around the world.”
The immediacy of the cryptocurrency transactions is highly appealing to this global clientele, who can purchase important color gemstones, haute horology timepieces, and custom and estate jewelry from Stephen Silver nearly instantaneously from around the world,” the release stated. The Silvers said their average sale via cryptocurrency is close to seven figures.
The company’s president, Jared Silver, who led the embrace of cryptocurrency, said: “Private investors can take advantage of cryptocurrency to facilitate major purchases for millions of dollars from anywhere in the world, with an immediacy that cuts out third-party wire transfers and credit card processers. Along with these benefits, by transacting in cryptocurrency, investors additionally save up to 1.5% on purchases made with Bitcoin as they will not incur conversion fees.”
The overwhelming majority of jewelers, however, are not embracing crypto just yet. We recently asked our Brain Squad, “Do you (or will you soon) accept Bitcoin as payment for your goods and services?” Ninety-seven percent said “no.”
[Editor’s note: In response to reader comments to this article, Stephen Silver Fine Jewelry submitted the following statement.]
In the hope that we can be a point of reference to others interested in responsibly adopting cryptocurrency into their business, we would like to elaborate on the process of accepting crypto currencies and the KYC/AML (Know Your Customer/Anti-Money Laundering) process, which this article did not address. As a 38-year-old multi-generational professional organization, we take our compliance very seriously, and we considered these concerns before we processed our first transaction. After completing our KYC/AML vetting process, we confidently transact in cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, and Monero.
Stephen Silver Fine Jewelry is fortunate to be located in the heart of Silicon Valley at the forefront of technology. We tracked the adoption of cryptocurrencies for over a decade, and, before accepting these new forms of payment, we did extensive research on the best crypto processing partners. We chose to work with BitPay, the current industry leader, because of their robust system and KYC/AML compliance vetting process. In order to receive merchant authorization, BitPay’s compliance team performed an extensive review of our company. This included a detailed review of the company’s financial statements, vetted our internal KYC/AML process, and their legal and compliance teams interviewed our leadership team on multiple occasions. Furthermore, we only accept crypto payments from authorized BitPay approved wallets. Through this process, we are confident that we are compliant with all laws by accepting cryptocurrencies.
Blockchain and cryptocurrency technology are a part of our reality and future, and we are proud to serve our customers using new and emerging technologies. It is a mistake not to responsibly embrace, learn how to work with, and adopt cryptocurrency in business practices for the greater benefit of commerce. Blockchain technologies and cryptocurrencies will continue to evolve, and, during that evolution, we are committed to the upholding the appropriate compliance measures to transact ethically and responsibly.