First 'Crypto Cafe' Opens Up In Louisville

A Louisville coffee shop recently rebranded to become the city's first "crypto cafe."

78 Coffee Co. in the Phoenix Hill neighborhood is now Dogebeans. It's also the first of its kind to accept the cryptocurrency Dogecoin in addition to U.S. cash and credit.

"Our plans are to open a café where you can pay for a cup of coffee using your Dogecoin and that's part of our mission is to make cryptocurrency easy for everybody," Andrew Lutes, Dogebeans co-founder, told WLKY.

Dogebeans' physical location isn't open right now, but it's selling coffee beans online. Lutes told the station that about 25% of its orders are paid for with cryptocurrency.

Cryptocurrency has become increasingly popular over the last few years. Around 14% of Americans own some form of it, according to Yahoo Finance.

Dogecoin is just one form of cryptocurrency, but it didn't become popular until 2020 when billionaires like Mark Cuban and Elon Musk started buying into it. More than 1,400 companies across the globe accept Dogecoin as payment, according to Cryptwerk.

Even though the acceptance of these digital currencies has been slow, Lutes see the potential.

"We're not going to put everything we have into cryptocurrency because right now, it's still really early. But we believe in this thing long-term," he said.

He hasn't said when the in-person Dogebeans will open, but Lutes hope to open multiple locations.