Dive Brief:

• Lord & Taylor department stores now accept bitcoin via the mobile software app Pounce, made by an Israeli startup working with Coinbase Inc’s digital bitcoin wallet.

• That a traditional department store company like Lord & Taylor will accept the alternative currency is a big step for its legitimacy, observers said.

• Coinbase has continued its push to work with retailers, including a deal with overstock.com earlier this year, despite bitcoin’s ongoing problems.

Dive Insight:

Move over, drug lords and arms dealers: Lord & Taylor is accepting bitcoin. The currency has certainly picked up some real cred in this deal. The move is also a sign that bitcoin still has a chance, despite a bankruptcy debacle at its largest exchange, moves by the Japanese government to regulate and tax it, and recent mysteries surrounding its founder, not to mention its reputation as a go-to payment system for illicit activities. Still, yesterday the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc., the private organization that self-regulates financial and finance exchange markets, released an alert on the currency’s potential for fraud, in a further sign that regulators in the U.S. are becoming increasingly concerned that they will have to assert some authority over bitcoin.