Overstock CEO bullish on bitcoin sales

Customers using bitcoins have spent more than $1 million on Overstock.com since the site began accepting the virtual currency in January. The figure has exceeded Overstock's expectations and company CEO Patrick Byrne now believes bitcoin sales could reach $15 million this year, three times what was originally projected. The site's overall sales exceeded $1 billion last year.

Overstock.com's support of bitcoin transactions is important in light of some of the recent problems affecting the currency. Mt. Gox, a bitcoin exchange, filed for bankruptcy protection last week after revealing that $470 million worth of bitcoins had been stolen by hackers. A bitcoin bank in the U.K., Flexcoin, closed its doors this week after reporting thieves stole around $610,000 in bitcoins.

Mr. Byrne, via The Wall Street Journal, said, "Banks get robbed and no one says that something must be wrong with the dollar."

Of course, there are some such as Warren Buffet, who take issue with the words bitcoin and currency being used in the same sentence.

"It's not a currency," Mr. Buffett told The Associated Press. "I wouldn't be surprised if it's not around in 10 or 20 years."

• Overstock CEO Sees Bitcoin Sales Rising More Than Expected - The Wall Street Journal (sub. required)
• Bitcoin bank Flexcoin closes after hack attack - The Guardian
• Overlooking Bitcoin hiccups: Overstock hits $1 million in sales from virtual currency - GeekWire
• Buffett bashes Bitcoin, wary of minimum pay hike - The Associated Press/USA Today