Italian luxury fashion house Gucci will reportedly accept crypto as a means of payment in several of its U.S. stores by the end of May, and it is planning to extend this program to all of its directly operated North American stores by the end of the summer.

According to a report published by Vogue Business yesterday,”in-store crypto payments will be made with a link sent via email to the customer” and “the link contains a QR code that allows them to execute the payment from their crypto wallet.”

The pilot program will launch this month at the following U.S. Gucci stores: “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.”

It seems that Gucci will be accepting crypto with the help of crypto payment processor BitPay.

BitPay, which is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, was founded in May 2011 by Tony Gallippi and Stephen Pair. The goal was “to make it easy for businesses to accept bitcoin payments,” and by September 2013, over 10,000 merchants were accepting Bitcoin (BTC) with the help of BitPay. Currently, the company claims to be “the largest bitcoin payment processor in the world, serving businesses on 6 continents.” Amongst its backers are Index Ventures, Founders Fund, and Felicis Ventures.

This means that the following 12 cryptoassets will be supported: Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Dogecoin (DOGE), Shiba Inu ($SHIB), Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC), and five USD-pegged stable coins (BUSD, DAI, GUSD, USDP, and USDC).

The report also mentioned that Gucci has “established itself as an early adopter of Web3 technologies, which include blockchain, and crypto payments mark another step toward Gucci blending its existing physical presence with its emerging Web3 efforts.”

Marco Bizzarri, Gucci president and CEO, said in a statement:

Gucci is always looking to embrace new technologies when they can provide an enhanced experience for our customers. Now that we are able to integrate cryptocurrencies within our payment system, it is a natural evolution for those customers who would like to have this option available to them.

Disclaimer

The views and opinions expressed by the author, or any people mentioned in this article, are for informational purposes only, and they do not constitute financial, investment, or other advice. Investing in or trading cryptoassets comes with a risk of financial loss.

Image Credit

Featured Image by “Michelle_Raponi” via Pixabay.com