The online retailer Overstock plans to accept the digital currency Bitcoin next year, the company’s top executive told the Financial Times, becoming the first big American online retailer to do so.

Patrick Byrne said the online general merchandise shop plans to start taking Bitcoin as early as the second quarter in 2014.

“I think a healthy monetary system at the end of the day isn’t an upside down pyramid based on the whim of a government official, but is based on something that they can’t control,” he said. “If there’s going to be some part of the population which adopts it… I think that we’ll get that business. And the people who switch to it will respect that we started adopting it.”

Bitcoin’s popularity spiked in recent months and caused its price-per-coin to recently peak at $1,280. But it has been volatile, and one Bitcoin was worth about $696 on Friday morning.

[Financial Times]