Support Bitcoin Payments: Shortwave Cafe business covers three states and opens up Bitcoin .

This is the story of a coffee brand accepting payment from Bitcoin , with an ongoing global campaign behind it. Millions of Bitcoin supporters walk up to the counter one after another, asking the same four words: Did you collect Bitcoin .

In March 2026, Square started automatically enabling Bitcoin on up to 4 million devices, switching from requiring merchants to activate the feature by default. The pace of incremental advancement was more like a trickle rather than a tidal wave, and many Square terminals still did not receive updates. Many people decided to push the process forward themselves: going into local stores, contacting managers, convincing them to open Bitcoin . This series will document these achievements one store at a time.

The first stop: Shortwave Coffee

There are an estimated 250 independent coffee shops in the St. Louis area, and one of them has earned a steadfast loyalty from Bitcoin users. Why?

Shortwave Coffee was founded in 2014 as a small, family-owned brewery in Missouri and has since grown to five locations across three states: two in Columbia City, one in St. Louis, another in Minneapolis, and a brewing workshop in Tampa. They brew their own coffee beans; the quality of the concentrated coffee is really excellent, and the key detail that makes ordinary users return customers is the cashier's support for Bitcoin payments.

Over the past few months, a group of local Bitcoin supporters have been asking cafeteria staff questions and emailing company email multiple times before finally getting an affirmative answer in July 2026. The St. Louis store is located at 33 North Sarah Street in Midwest with a beautiful outdoor terrace surrounded by wildflowers, ample indoor space for more than 75 people, plenty of on-street parking just two hours drive west to Shwaveort's two earliest stores in Columbia City, and the atmosphere is equally great: same modern renovations, sense of place, as well as payment for Bitcoin .

Voting by Consumers

This is the central point of this column: we can choose to throw our wallets at the best merchants. Shops that really understand product quality and care about customers will naturally accept Bitcoin when a customer asks for it.

If you are a regular coffee shop, car repair shop or any other small business that has just launched Bitcoin , welcome to come and share with us the landing process of this currency change.

This article originally appeared in Bitcoin Magazine and was written by Vagabond.