NYC Bar Owner Wants to Sell His Business for $1 Million in Bitcoin

Bitcoin’s recent rally has many people excited and looking to get in on the market however they can. As far as desperate attempts to get money go, one New York bar owner seems to be putting his business on the line for a piece of the crypto pie.

Dropping It All for Some Crypto

The New York Post recently reported that Patrick Hughes, a local bar owner, and crypto enthusiast, is looking to offload his bars in exchange for some digital assets. Hughes owns Hellcat Annie’s and Scruffy Duffy’s – two watering holes located on 10th Avenue.

The businessman is now looking to sell the two properties, with signs in front of them showing an asking price of 800 ETH or 25 BTC for both bars. 

At the time the report came out, Hughes was asking for the equivalent of $1 million in crypto for his businesses.

Speaking to the news source, Hughes explained that the shutdowns had taken a significant toll on his business.

He had cut his staff by as much as 90 percent, reducing his workforce from 50 people before March 2020 to just five or six today.

Instead of waiting out the storm, the Queens native is looking to sell it all and move on. He is now looking to catch some “crypto dudes who always wanted to own a bar.”

Tahini’s Profitable Bitcoin Play

While Hughes appears to be done with his business, this isn’t the first interaction between crypto and the restaurant industry. In August 2020, Tahini’s, a Middle Eastern restaurant in Canada, announced that it had moved its reserves to Bitcoin.

The restaurant, which operates four locations across the country, explained that it had moved to the Bitcoin standard at the start of the pandemic’s first wave. After noticing relief efforts from the government, the company had concerns over the Canadian dollar’s value and decided to use Bitcoin as a hedge.  

In March, Canada’s Department of Finance proposed an economic relief package to provide the equivalent of $2,000 a month for about four months to workers who were laid off due to the pandemic. Prime Minister Trudeau announced the relief for some eligible groups of people – an extension that would last another four to six months.

In his statement, Omar Haman, Tahini’s owner, explained that it was the right time to move into Bitcoin. As he put it, relief efforts wouldn’t last forever, and some companies would still have problems following the pandemic. This, as well as the relief’s effects on the currency, meant that the restaurant had to hedge immediately.

“As time went on I was constantly trying to learn and grow my knowledge about finance. I heard people in the Bitcoin community saying you have to hear about Bitcoin at least 7 times before you get into it. 100% accurate,” Haman said.

The restaurant didn’t say how much it was converting into Bitcoin. Still, considering that the leading cryptocurrency has gained over 200 percent since then, the move has proven to be the right call.