Bitcoin continues to be adopted as a means of payment. A study by Springer lists more than 11,000 businesses accepting BTC worldwide, with strong community momentum in certain areas. The analysis is based on data from BTC Map, a collaborative map of merchant acceptance.
Slowly but surely: Bitcoin continues to be adopted as a means of payment
A recent study conducted by Springer, one of the world’s largest scientific publishers specializing in science, technology, and medicine, recently revealed that the adoption of Bitcoin as a means of payment continued to grow in 2025, regardless of BTC price movements.
The study is based primarily on data from BTC Map, a collaborative map listing physical stores that accept Bitcoin. Researchers have identified more than 11,000 stores worldwide.
However, the Lightning Network, a layer 2 solution enabling fast and inexpensive BTC transactions, does not provide any information on the nature of purchases or their location. BTC Map therefore becomes an essential tool for understanding the geography of Bitcoin adoption as a means of payment.
Thus, only the number of businesses accepting Bitcoin can truly serve as an indicator of this adoption, as a market signal. If no one were willing to accept Bitcoin, then the number of these businesses would not be growing at such a rate.
One might think that these businesses could just register and never actually accept Bitcoin. Indeed, many businesses stop accepting these payments when they see low adoption, but BTC Map updates this data regularly, with 64% of the establishments listed having been verified in the last 12 months. Restaurants, bars, cafes, and supermarkets are the most common types of businesses accepting Bitcoin.
Places where Bitcoin is most widely accepted
The geographical distribution of businesses accepting Bitcoin remains very uneven: Europe, North America, and Central America account for the majority of acceptance points.
Two cities stand out in particular: Prague, in the Czech Republic, and Berlin, in El Salvador.
In Prague, around 6% of restaurants and 2% of cafes accept BTC. The city is also a hub for the Bitcoin ecosystem in Europe, hosting the annual BTC Prague conference and the headquarters of Trezor, a pioneer in hardware wallets.
In contrast, in Berlín, El Salvador, more than 70% of businesses accept Bitcoin, driven not by national legislation but by community dynamics.
During our report in El Salvador, we met Gerardo and Evelyn, founders of the Bitcoin Berlín association. Inspired by the success of Bitcoin Beach in El Zonte, they wanted to replicate the experience in their own city. Today, Berlín has become the city with the highest density of businesses accepting Bitcoin in the world.
