Gucci Joins Crypto Acceptance Craze, Will Launch 10-Currency Payment Program This Month

Luxury fashion brand Gucci will become the latest retailer to accept cryptocurrency payments when it launches the program in some U.S. stores at the end of this month and at all North American stores this summer, according to a company press release.

Customers will make their crypto payments using a QR code sent to their email addresses that lets them access their crypto wallets, the press release said. The five-city pilot program will kick off in New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Atlanta and Las Vegas.

Gucci will accept payments in more than 10 currencies, including bitcoin, bitcoin cash, dogecoin, ethereum, wrapped bitcoin, litecoin, shiba inu and five stablecoins pegged to the U.S. dollar, per the release.

“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,” the company said in its press release.

Gucci recently shared via its Gucci Vault Discord server that owners of two of its non-fungible token (NFT) projects — SuperGucci and Gucci Grail — would have special access to pre-order a Gucci collection before it is released to the general public.

“Gucci is always looking to embrace new technologies when they can provide an enhanced experience for our customers,” Marco Bizzarri, Gucci president and CEO, said in the announcement. “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.”

Related: The Data Point: 23% of US Consumers Owned Cryptocurrency in 2021

In “The U.S. Crypto Consumer: Cryptocurrency Use in Online and in-Store Purchases,” PYMNTS and BitPay noted that almost 1 in 4 consumers (23%) — totaling 59.6 million people — owned at least one cryptocurrency in 2021, up from 16% (an estimated 41.5 million people) in 2020.

One-quarter of consumers prefer merchants that accept cryptocurrencies, according to our research. Millennials (32%) and bridge millennials (27%) are now willing to drop retailers that don’t accept them as a payment method.