Even As Bitcoin Gets Obliterated, Retailers Say They Will Still Accept It As A Form Of Payment

The price of bitcoin has been declining, dropping as low as $173 last Wednesday, according to stats from CoinDesk.

At the time of publication, the volatile cryptocurrency was back up to about $230.

With the price of bitcoin sinking, are the limited number of companies that were accepting bitcoin as a form of payment going to stop taking bitcoin? Three major companies that spoke to Business Insider say they plan to continue accepting bitcoin as a form of payment.

A spokesperson from Expedia, which began accepting the cryptocurrency as a form of payment over the summer, told Business Insider it will continue to accept bitcoin as a form of payment for hotels purchased on Expedia.com.

"All bitcoin transactions are handled through the company's partnership with Coinbase, a third-party bitcoin payment processor who handles the processing and transfer of actual bitcoin funds directly with Expedia's customers," the Expedia spokesperson said.

Likewise, Microsoft confirmed the company will continue to support bitcoin as an option for customers to add funds to their Microsoft accounts. Starting in December, Microsoft began allowing customers to use bitcoin to buy apps and games for Windows, Windows Phone, and Xbox.

A spokesperson for Overstock also confirmed that fluctuations in the price of bitcoin will not affect the company's decision to accept bitcoin as a form of payment. Overstock started letting customers pay with bitcoin in January 2014, becoming the first major retailer to do so.

Mobile payments processor Braintree also announced Thursday it plans to open up bitcoin payments to thousands of its merchants, including Uber and Airbnb, through a partnership with third-party bitcoin payment processor Coinbase. Though the partnership was originally announced in September, "today's update means that, effective immediately, 'any merchant that uses Braintree for credit card payments [can now accept bitcoin payments],'" Pando reported.

Though retailers are sticking with bitcoin, low bitcoin prices forced cloud mining service CEX.io to temporarily stop its operations. The service was no longer turning a profit because of how low bitcoin prices had dipped.