Can I buy Bitcoin at Walmart?

It’s not possible to buy Bitcoin at Walmart directly but there are indirect methods that you can use.

Some sellers do not accept cash, Visa or Mastercard (!) on their Bitcoin sales! That’s right, some sellers do not take cash – but they prefer, you guessed it, Walmart gift cards!

Paxful Marketplace

At Paxful you can purchase Bitcoin using Walmart gift cards.

From a minimum of U$ 400 to a maximum of U$ 8000, you can buy Bitcoin almost instantly by submitting your Walmart gift card number, PIN and desired amount. With each offer, the seller will establish their terms and conditions for the sale.

The image below shows the search interface to the Paxful marketplace:

You can also exchange Walmart gift certs back to Bitcoin, as shown in this next video:

Walmart Money Transfer

You can also arrange to buy Bitcoin from sellers who use the Walmart Money Transfers service.

This isn’t really a Walmart service for Bitcoin, but just a convenient way to send and receive cash from other Walmart customers.

This service can be used to send and receive money from Mexico, Philippines and all over the USA.

Bitcoin Candy

The photo below, posted on Reddit by /u/TheKayleMan, shows Bitcoin candy being sold at Walmart shelves!

You can delight your significant other with one of these delicious $1 Bitcoin chocolate candies!

Walmart Blockchain Patent

In the meantime you can expect more cryptocurrency-related offerings from Walmart.

In late 2016 Walmart filed a patent for an electrical grid demand management system that uses a distributed transaction ledger (blockchain). Will this be a strong competitor to other interesting electrical management systems such as Power Ledger?

Conclusion

As you can see, even what initially seemed impossible can be achieved with a little creativity.

By using an indirection, be it Walmart gift certs or Walmart transfers, you can perhaps walk out of one of Sam Walton’s stores with a little bit more Bitcoin than when you came in!

Beware, though. Bitcoin sellers who accept gift card tend to ask for a significant premium. At the time of this writing, while Bitcoin costs U$ 4400 on the largest exchanges, one Paxful marketplace seller asked for U$ 6000 per BTC. Ouch!