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Most of Dish Network’s 14 million subscribers are probably not Bitcoin users. But that will not stop the company from accepting payments in the virtual currency later this year.

Dish announced on Thursday that customers would be able to make manual payments in Bitcoin beginning in the third quarter. And while Dish may not be the first company to accept Bitcoin, it claims to be the largest — though the appeal of the payment option is still unclear.

“We don’t know what the demand will be, exactly,” Bernie Han, Dish’s chief operating officer, said in an interview on Thursday. “It might be tiny. It might be bigger than tiny. It’s probably growing.”

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In fact, Bitcoin’s biggest appeal may be its ability to attract new customers. As enthusiasts try to push virtual currency further into the mainstream, digital money may offer companies cutting-edge appeal.

“Accepting Bitcoin is about all these things — marketing, branding and acquiring new types of customers,” said Gil Luria, an analyst with Wedbush Securities. “I don’t think there are a lot of customers asking Dish for Bitcoin by name, but that doesn’t mean Dish won’t get some new customers now that they accept Bitcoin because those customers see Dish as a friendlier, more forward-thinking brand.”

Retailers like Overstock.com and Virgin America already accept virtual currency, helped by new services that aim to make digital money easier to use.

One such company is Coinbase, which began with $25 million from the investment firm Andreessen Horowitz. Coinbase acts as a third-party payment processor, converting customers’ Bitcoins into dollars. “We’re excited to support Dish and their current and new subscribers for their Bitcoin transactions,” Fred Ehrsam, a co-founder of Coinbase, said in a statement. “This is a large step forward in the growing momentum of customers paying companies in Bitcoin for things we do every day, like watching premium TV.”

But that does not mean those companies are seeing a flood of Bitcoins. Less than 1 percent of Overstock’s sales are made in Bitcoin, according to the company’s most recent quarterly filing.

Users acquire Bitcoins by buying them from one another on online exchanges or by solving complicated mathematical equations to “mine” new coins. When it first appeared in 2009, Bitcoin offered a cheaper payment system that allowed people to bypass the banking industry.

Since then, its following has expanded beyond technology enthusiasts and anti-establishment types to include more mainstream users. That soon attracted entrepreneurs looking to start new businesses and capitalize on a growing market.

But the wider adoption has also drawn increased scrutiny to Bitcoin’s volatility and regulation. The price of a Bitcoin has fluctuated wildly, from a few cents in the beginning to more than $1,000 at its peak. Its current price is about $565, according to the online index CoinDesk.

In February, Mt. Gox, a once-dominant online exchange for the virtual currency, collapsed amid a swirl of speculation that hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of Bitcoin had been stolen. The collapse, and the subsequent closure of the online marketplace Silk Road, prompted a scramble among regulators to impose rules that would protect consumers and prevent future illicit activity. But virtual-currency enthusiasts have said that the closing of some of Bitcoin’s early institutions could be a good thing. There may now be more room, they say, for sophisticated businesses to help Bitcoin gain a wider following, including from established companies like Dish.

“It’s another big milestone,” Mr. Luria said of Dish’s announcement. “This is a mainstream company with mainstream leadership that’s decided to embrace Bitcoin and what Bitcoin technology offers.”