Yelp introduced a new search tag that allows users to tag and search vendors who accept cryptocurrency for payment.

The tag is labeled ‘Accepts Cryptocurrency,’ and when applied only merchants who accept crypto payments are shown in a particular region. Yelp.com boasts over 100 million business reviews and is 40th most visited website in the US according to Alexa.

Yelp Provides More Signal for Crypto

Yelp, which has more than 30 million unique monthly visitors across its mobile application and website, provides vital information about service providers. Information such as opening and closing hours, services provided, menu and crowdsourced customers reviews and recommendations are provided by the website. It is most famous for its review functionality, which many users see as the closest thing to a reliable indicator of service quality.

The new “Accepts Cryptocurrency” tag potentially brings more exposure and awareness to crypto by portraying it as a bona fide mainstream payment option. There is also the possibility that more businesses could integrate crypto payment processing in response to the Yelp tag to increase their client base. It could be a win-win situation for the crypto-sphere and the Yelp ecosystem.

That said, the new option appears to be a limited release by the company. Although there are allegedly images of Yelp offering an “Accepts Cryptocurrency” filter on some iOS devices, the filter does not seem available on Android or Desktop. That said, the “Accepts Cryptocurrency” search tag is ubiquitous between the different platforms in the US.

Similar Developments

As crypto continues to struggle with large scale adoption, it is increasingly important that more businesses like Yelp openly embrace it as a recognized form of payment.

Prior to the news from Yelp, some influential figures who have openly promoted cryptocurrency adoption include tennis star Serena Williams—who revealed her fund invested in Coinbase; Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey—who started an initiative called Square Crypto, which is an open source initiative to improve bitcoin; and Tesla CEO Elon Musk who called bitcoin “quite brilliant.”

In a separate development, crypto payment processing startup Moon now has a solution that allows Amazon users to pay for products with Bitcoin. Moon links a Bitcoin wallet to the Moon interface through an extension in the Chrome web browser.

Developments like these demonstrate that cryptocurrency as a means of payment is entering the mainstream.