- The French luxury giant’s approval of the digital assets not only addresses a gap in crypto payments but also caters to a growing young population of online users
- The crypto payments support comes at a time when the digital assets are experiencing extreme levels of volatility in the market
Balenciaga is the latest name in the luxury fashion industry to offer support for crypto payments. The Paris-headquartered fashion powerhouse announced this week that it would allow its customers to settle payments in crypto in some of its stores in the United States.
Two Balenciaga stores – Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills and Madison Avenue in New York – have moved to implement the plan.
Acceptance of crypto payment is a long-term strategy
Despite several digital coins haemorrhaging up to half of their value in recent weeks, the fashion giant seems to look at the future success of their brands in regards to crypto adoption. Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, Balenciaga CEO Cedric Charbit claimed the recent sell-off for cryptocurrencies and the high volatility is nothing new.
The fashion brand confirmed it has strategies in place for other outlets globally to accept the payment.
It is worth noting that other popular brands like Gucci already accept a broad range of cryptocurrencies to settle payments, including Shiba Inu, Dogecoin and Litecoin.
This is the direction Balenciaga aims to take as it seeks to exploit the potential in the crypto sector. The luxury brand has given the nod to the two leading cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin and Ethereum) and aims to add other cryptocurrencies for payment with time.
Other companies in the same industry that have enabled crypto as a payment form recently include Tag Heuer and Philipp Plein. Last August, the latter’s pro-crypto CEO Philipp Patrick Plein observed that crypto-payment for settlement will likely rise in the coming years.
The metaverse and NFTs may offer growth avenues for luxury brands
Late last year, Balenciaga formed an in-house metaverse business unit. The brand’s CEO claimed that the metaverse should be viewed as an important tech space and treated equally important.
Several high net worth brands like Nike, Adidas, and Gucci have already launched the NFT collections and metaverse pop-ups. This sector is anticipated to grow and reach nearly a $56 billion market value in 2030.