Overstock will abandon its retail business to go all-in on blockchain

Overstock is about to leave the e-commerce site.

One of the first online Internet retailers, Overstock, is preparing to sell the entire e-commerce business in February, according to its founder and CEO Patrick Byrne.

The future of Overstock? Start of cryptocurrency and blockchain.

Speaking al , Byrne detailed his Overstock sales plans and discussed the company's $ 175 million investment so far in its subsidiary Medici Ventures, which supports blockchain startups.

Overstock was founded in 1999 and initially focused on the sale of surplus goods, returned and cleared of all kinds. Starting today, the company's attention to the company has moved towards home decoration, bed linen, kitchen appliances and jewelry.

The company is known for the acrobatics that bring attention as its short rebranding of 2011 from Overstock to "O.co". In 2014, Overstock became the first major retail store to accept Bitcoin as payment for its goods. While the company has admitted that Bitcoin transactions have largely come down after the initial announcement, that the ups and downs of the company's shares are apparently related to the rise and fall in the price of Bitcoin.

So far this year Overstock has lost $ 163 million. The investment in Medici has not been repaid, with the subsidiary losing $ 22 million last year and $ 39 million so far this year. To make matters worse, Medici's best-known investment, tZero, a startup of the trading system, has yet to be launched to the public.

Byrne does not seem bothered by any of this.

"I do not care if tZero is losing $ 2 million a month," said Overstock's founder and CEO at magazine. "We think we have a cold fusion on the blockchain side".

Selling the business that built Overstock and completely rotated on the blockchain, Byrne is proving that it is not a gimmick.