High-end begets high-end as luxury brand Gucci announces its acceptance of Bored Ape Yacht Club’s proprietary cryptocurrency, ApeCoin, as a valid mode of payment.
According to a Tweet on Tuesday, this new payment method will be available in select US branches and with this partnership, holders of the esteemed Bored Ape Yacht Club and Mutant Ape Yacht Club NFTs will have a new way to represent their community in real life by purchasing garments from the renowned luxury fashion brand. “It’s “yet another step in the House’s exploration of Web3,” Gucci tweeted this morning. The brand did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Decrypt about why it added ApeCoin, as well as how its crypto initiative has performed to date,” the tweet said.
Now accepting @ApeCoin payments via @BitPay, select Gucci boutiques in the USA expand the range ofcryptocurrencies available for in-store purchases, yet another step in the House’s exploration of Web3.
— gucci (@gucci) August 2, 2022
Recently, Gucci has been making strides towards marking its presence in the Web 3.0 universe. The brand played a huge role in the massive bull run in the NFT space by making its Aria fashion collection into an NFT video which sold for $25,000 at Christie’s Proof of Sovereignty sale. In May, the brand revealed in an interview that it had plans in place to start accepting top coins like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin, Litecoin and Shiba Inu at select stores. The brand has implemented BitPay’s service which processes customers payments when they scan the QR code. BitPay also announced that ApeCoin and Euro Coin (EUROC) have been added to its platform, with Gucci being the first retailer to allow ApeCoin as a payment mode in select boutiques in the United States.
Earlier, in Januar 2022, Gucci and many other notable brands in the fashion and art world partnered with Superplastic to launch a collection of 10,000 programmatically generated NFTs. In March, Gucci then launched its own collection, 10KTF: Gucci Grail Mint Pass. Through the project, holders could create custom PFP outfits featuring pieces based on eleven of the most popular NFT projects out at that time.
While Gucci is making the news with its latest adoption of ApeCoin for payments, the brand is not the only one toeing this path. Other luxury fashion brands are also making their way into the NFT space to cater to their digital-savvy customers such as Prada and Balenciaga. These two brands debuted in the NFT world in 2022, offering their customers high-value physical offerings and exclusive digital drops.
Having fashion brands dominantly present in the NFT world serves more than one purpose. It gives passionate NFT lovers easy access to their favorite fashion brands and also enables fashion lovers to become a part of the NFT world. This is a welcome development as Web 3.0 presents limitless possibilities.
For individuals and big brands, Web 3.0 presents numerous opportunities and for a brand like Gucci, it might be the perfect way to create brand loyalty campaigns with high levels of engagement, depth and customer loyalty.
So, have you got a stash of ApeCoin (APE), walk into a select Gucci store and splurge on yourself to give your wardrobe a facelift.