Covid and Chill? Bitcoin Used to Buy Weed & Video Games Amid Lockdown

• E-commerce stores saw a 50% increase in bitcoin-based purchases of cannabis and video games during the pandemic lockdown.
• Coronavirus has revealed people’s priorities, as general digital product sales take a fall.
• Bitcoin, stoners and gamers–the holy trinity of overlapping essentials amid this lockdown?

Stoners and gamers have turned to Bitcoin during the coronavirus lockdown, as web-based sales of both ‘essentials’ increased during the pandemic.

Revenue for video game and cannabis sales using bitcoin saw a 50% increase among the 100 e-commerce merchants surveyed by Blockonomics. The research states:

Cannabis orders are up: people are buying more weed than ever, with revenue up over 50%. I mean, what else are you going to do at home? 💨

Likewise, the lockdown has also turned people towards video games as a means of distraction. The data do not specify whether the people buying cannabis were the same people buying video games–but experience suggests there might be a slight overlap.

Digital Products Fall Out of Favor – But Cannabis and Games Survive

Two other business sectors also saw an increase in bitcoin-based sales– web-hosting, and nutritional supplements. The Blockonomics article states:

Nutritional supplements also saw an increase of revenue of up to 50%, as people continue to look for alternative ways to stay healthy (possibly in response to empty food shelves at the grocery store).

While web-hosting services saw a marked increase in revenue, the same cannot be said for all digital products. In fact, 75% of respondents said they witnessed a decrease in bitcoin-based revenue during the lockdown.

No website that offered digital products saw an increase in revenue, 25% of respondents reported no change in revenue, while the remaining 75% saw decreases.

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So even though everyone is staying home, that has not manifested in a transparent boost to typical digital products. As the article speculates, this can likely be explained by people putting a greater focus on buying essential physical goods, which are at threat of being lost in a potential supply-chain slowdown.

Store Owners Still Holding Bitcoin

Almost half of the store owners surveyed revealed they were holding on to any bitcoin they received, while over 10% said they were continuing to buy even more. The article states:

Our e-commerce store owners continue to be major believers of Bitcoin: 44.9% of the respondents have decided to hold on to 100% of their Bitcoin during this time, with 10.2% additionally buying Bitcoin.

So, as gamers and cannabis users continue to part with their BTC, store owners are only too happy to hold on to it. That might have something to do with bitcoin’s 102% increase in value over the past month and a half.

This article was edited by Sam Bourgi.

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