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As the crypto move to broader acceptance, luxury brand Gucci said it will accept payments in cryptocurrencies
High-end fashion house Gucci will begin accepting cryptocurrencies at some of its stores this month, including bitcoin, ether, dogecoin, and Shiba Inu. The company plans for all of its directly operated stores in North America to accept crypto by this summer. In-store crypto payments will be made with a link sent via email to the customer; the link contains a QR code that allows them to execute the payment from their crypto wallet. The first Gucci stores to take crypto are Wooster Street in New York, Rodeo Drive in Los Angeles, Miami Design District, Phipps Plaza in Atlanta, and The Shops at Crystals in Las Vegas. Gucci will accept payments in more than 10 currencies, including Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Wrapped Bitcoin, Litecoin, Shiba Inu, and five stable coins pegged to the US dollar. It will also accept Dogecoin, a “meme” cryptocurrency created as a joke.
Gucci has been ramping up its non-fungible token (NFT) and Web3 efforts. The company recently established a Web3-focused team and released a few NFTs. The fashion house is also establishing a presence in the metaverse. It is developing digital real estate in The Sandbox. The two companies “will collaborate to create an interactive fashion experience based on Vault, Gucci’s conceptual space and meeting place inspired by childhood memories of the beauty search,” they previously announced.
Gucci’s tryst with Web 3 started with a 4-minute film titled Aria that sold for US$25,000 last summer in an online auction hosted by a British auction house, Christie’s. The retailer also came up with two NFT collections – SuperGucci and Gucci Grail this year.
Further expanding into Web 3, Gucci recently purchased virtual land in Animoca Brands’ decentralized blockchain game The Sandbox for an undisclosed amount in February. It was developing a virtual concept store, dubbed “Gucci Vault,” for Gucci-themed NFTs.
In a statement to Vogues, Marco Bizzarri, Gucci’s president and CEO, said, “Gucci is always looking to embrace new technologies when they can provide an enhanced experience for our customers. Now that we can integrate cryptocurrencies within our payment system, it is a natural evolution for those customers who would like to have this option available to them.”
In-store crypto payments will be made with a link sent via email to the customer; the link contains a QR code that allows them to execute the payment from their crypto wallet. The first Gucci stores to take crypto are Wooster Street in New York, Rodeo Drive in Los Angeles, Miami Design District, Phipps Plaza in Atlanta, and The Shops at Crystals in Las Vegas. Gucci will accept payments in more than 10 currencies, including Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Wrapped Bitcoin, Litecoin, Shiba Inu, and five stable coins pegged to the US dollar. It will also accept Dogecoin, a “meme” cryptocurrency created as a joke.
Crypto payments are usually accepted in physical spaces through a QR code or NFC reader on an existing point of sale terminal that connects with a customer’s smartphone cryptocurrency app, similar to mobile credit card payments. A retailer can automatically convert the payment to fiat currency, such as US dollars, or keep the payments in the form of cryptocurrency.