Patrick Byrne
Patrick Byrne

Overstock.com has made waves in the tech community for being one of the largest companies to offer users the ability to transact in Bitcoin. But while the move has drawn interest from the cryptocurrency’s fans, it hasn’t been clear just how much of an impact it would have on the company’s bottom line.

Now, it looks like the company’s decision to allow Bitcoin sales may have been good business sense as well. Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne told Reuters that Bitcoin sales will contribute 4 cents to the company’s annual earnings per share.

This news could also be an attempt by Byrne to better spin the company’s earnings prospects. Financial analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters project that Overstock will report annual earnings of 53 cents a share, down 19 percent from 2013. Last quarter, the company brought in $332.5 million in revenue, with earnings of 8 cents per share.

Since the company started allowing Bitcoin sales in January, those transactions have brought in more than $2 million in revenue, and Byrne expects to bring in Bitcoin revenue between $6 and $8 million. Byrne has previously said that the company brings in between $20,000 and $30,000 in revenue from Bitcoin transactions every day, so that estimate seems reasonable.

That’s still less than 1 percent of the company’s $1.3 billion in annual revenue from 2013, but if those estimates come true, it could encourage more companies to jump on the Bitcoin bandwagon.

Byrne has said in the past that Amazon will soon have no choice but to accept Bitcoin, because of the opportunity that the cryptocurrency provides for Overstock and its other competitors. Amazon, in turn, has said that there isn’t enough demand for Bitcoin sales yet.

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