TL;DR
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For the most part, the biggest potential benefactors of the “crypto gold rush” exist outside of the crypto industry.
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Established legacy brands have the potential to extract huge value from the crypto market simply by adding ‘pay-with-crypto’ as a payment option.
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Eg: When ApeCoin first launched, there were 150 million tokens ($3 billion!) gifted to Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT holders. Gucci then began accepting ApeCoin in store to capture that value.
Full story
Premium/luxury brands are doing something genius…
While the rest of the retail industry sleeps on crypto, they are scooping up profits from all the new rich crypto guys out there.
Let’s break this down into three parts: value capture, premium/luxury brands, and the metaverse.
Capture value
The global retail market pulls in $7.9 trillion (with a T) dollars a year!
Companies around the world then try to capture some of that value by offering products/services to retailers.
Facebook does it through ad space, Shopify does it with its e-commerce platform, Apple does it by selling iPhones.
Few established/legacy companies have tried to extract value from the $1T+ crypto market…a few except:
Premium/Luxury brands
It might be strange to hear stories about Tiffany making earrings out of Crypto Punks, or Gucci accepting ApeCoin – but when you consider that these brands can create value, it’s all just click.
Let’s take a look at the Gucci example:
When ApeCoin first launched, there were 150 million tokens ($3 billion worth!) gifted to Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT holders. So when Gucci started accepting ApeCoin, the message was simple:
“Hey, do you want to spend some of that free money you just got in our stores?”
It’s an approach mimicked by other premium/luxury brands – and the script is always the same. Target crypto users who:
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Flush with cash.
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Ready to spend.
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Not yet directly aimed at the wider retail sector.
Then make it easy for them to transfer their funds using crypto payment integrations.
The metaphor
Today we see another example of this from premium streetwear brand “The Hundreds,” which just announced its next flagship store – in the metaverse.
The idea is simple:
Customers visit the virtual store → they get access to exclusive drops.
Is it gimmicky? Rather. Are they moving a bunch of merchandise? No. Are most people going to care? Doubt it.
But the genius of it is: none of that matters.
The Hundreds team creates an environment where a select few die-hard fans with high disposable incomes are happy to part with their crypto.
The takeaway meals
For the most part, the biggest potential benefactors of the “crypto gold rush” exist outside of the crypto industry.
Established legacy brands have the potential to extract huge value from the crypto market simply by adding ‘pay-with-crypto’ as a payment option.
Wild!