Bitcoin and Ethereum to be accepted for payments by luxury fashion house Balenciaga
The luxury fashion brand is also looking to develop its own metaverse
Image: Shutterstock
French luxury brand Balenciaga is reportedly set to start accepting crypto payments. According to The Wall Street Journal, starting next month, Balenciaga will accept Bitcoin and Ethereum as payment online and in select brick-and-mortar locations.
Although Balenciaga will only accept payments in Bitcoin or Ethereum in the beginning, it aims to expand the initiative to include more cryptocurrencies in the future. The brand will accept cryptocurrency in all of its US flagship stores, including Madison Avenue in New York and Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, as well as on its website.
Balenciaga SAS is a premium fashion house established in 1919 in San Sebastian, Spain by Spanish designer Cristóbal Balenciaga and later purchased by French luxury firm Kering. "Balenciaga is thinking long-term about crypto, and fluctuations in currency value are nothing new," the firm stated in a report by Women's Wear Daily.
Balenciaga's acceptance of cryptocurrencies comes at a time when market participants fear the cryptocurrency market is about to face another crypto winter. When asked if the latest market crash had influenced Balenciaga's crypto strategy, CEO Cédric Charbit simply said his thinking was “long-term”.
Balenciaga is the latest high-end fashion house to accept cryptocurrency as a payment method. Gucci had stated earlier this month that it would begin accepting cryptocurrency payments online and in five of its stores. Tag Heuer, a Swiss luxury wristwatch, also recently entered the crypto world, accepting twelve digital currencies and five stablecoins as payment methods on its US website.
The writer is the founder at yMedia. He ventured into crypto in 2013 and is an ETH maximalist. Twitter: @bhardwajshash
