In a new interview with FOX Business, Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne has reported new bitcoin sales figures for the e-commerce giant, noting the company has processed $1.6m in purchases so far this year.

The news follows the 4th March announcement by the company that it had passed $1m in year-to-date sales, less than two months after its decision to begin accepting the alternative payment method at the start of the year.

Since becoming the first major retailer to accept bitcoin in January, Overstock and its outspoken CEO have become unlikely figureheads for the digital currency community.

Byrne was customarily optimistic about bitcoin and its prospects in his interview on the FOX program Opening Bell, stating:

Byrne most recently delivered the opening keynote at Bitcoin2014 in Amsterdam, where he gave an impassioned speech on the underlying economic theories supporting bitcoin.

If correct, the figures would seem to indicate that Overstock has seen a drop-off in bitcoin sales figures in recent months after a strong start.

While the company earned $1m in the first two months of offering the payment option, Bryne's latest comments would suggest that this figure has fallen to $600,000 in the roughly three months since, though he did not provide exact dates for either projection.

In March, Bryne revised his anticipated year-end bitcoin sales figures up from roughly $3-$5m to as high as $10-20m.

Byrne also confirmed that his company is still holding 10% of its BTC sales earnings in the digital currency, a fact he first revealed in March.

The reiteration of the company policy comes at a time when critics in the traditional financial community have taken issue with the notion that Overstock is accepting bitcoin by working with and receiving fiat currency from California-based merchant processing service provider Coinbase.

Image via FOX Business