Blue Origin, the private spaceflight company founded by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos, is now letting customers pay for trips to space using bitcoin.
Through a partnership with payment processor Shift4, Blue Origin’s customers can now use bitcoin (BTC) and also other digital assets like ethereum (ETH), solana (SOL), and stablecoins like Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC) to book seats on its New Shepard suborbital spacecraft.
“Crypto is now a $4 trillion asset class, and the sky is the limit when it comes to its potential in the current payments ecosystem,” said Alex Wilson, head of digital assets at Shift4.
“We believe crypto and stablecoins are going to become an increasingly popular way for consumers to pay, particularly for high-end purchases.”
Customers can connect popular digital wallets like Coinbase Wallet and MetaMask to pay directly for flights.
Shift4’s payment infrastructure processes the transactions and can convert them into U.S. dollars instantly, so you can pay 24/7 from anywhere in the world. A bitcoin holder in one country can book a Blue Origin seat in seconds without going through a bank transfer.
They haven’t disclosed the cost of the current flights, but past trips have sold for millions. In 2021, the first-ever seat on New Shepard was auctioned for $28 million and was won by Tron blockchain founder Justin Sun.
Sun finally took his trip last week and was joined by five other passengers for a suborbital journey past the Kármán Line – the internationally recognized boundary of space.
Blue Origin has already flown over 75 people on similar missions, which last about 11 minutes from launch to landing.
While paying for space travel in bitcoin might sound like a publicity stunt, Blue Origin and Shift4 say it’s part of a bigger shift in how we handle expensive international purchases.
Paying a million-dollar invoice, domestically or internationally, is not easy. Bitcoin helps customers bypass international banking hurdles and complete transactions in seconds instead of days or weeks, and receive immediate confirmation.
For Bitcoin fans, it’s another sign that digital assets are moving into mainstream commerce — especially for high-value transactions.
Shift4 CEO Taylor Lauber says the goal of this partnership is to “transform commerce” by building seamless payment systems that go beyond the Earth’s boundaries.
Others in the industry think this could be a catalyst for other sectors to rethink payment options. Space tourism, with its high-net-worth customers and global reach, is an obvious first mover.
If this works here, it will show up in luxury travel, art sales, real estate etc.
Related: Luxury Auction House Christie’s Launches $1 Billion Bitcoin Division
