French luxury brand Balenciaga to accept Bitcoin, Ethereum as payment

Luxury fashion label Balenciaga will accept payments in cryptocurrencies Bitcoin and Ethereum online and in some of its shops in the United States from June, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.

The French brand will initially accept the two cryptocurrencies in its shops on Madison Avenue in New York and in Beverly Hills, California, with plans to gradually extend to other coins. 

Last December, Balenciaga announced it would set up a metaverse business unit. Balenciaga chief executive Cédric Charbit said at the time that the company sees the metaverse as “one country” and an important market similar to any of the countries where Balenciaga currently operates.

As well, Meta, formerly Facebook, asked Balenciaga on Twitter last October to define a “dress code in the metaverse.”

Balenciaga is not the only luxury brand that has plans to embrace cryptocurrencies and Web3-oriented business

Italian luxury brand Gucci recently announced that it would begin accepting cryptocurrencies as payment online and in five of its shops later this month. In addition to Bitcoin and Ethereum, the brand will accept Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, Dogecoin and Shiba Inu.

In February, Gucci bought a piece of LAND, a virtual land in the open virtual world The Sandbox. Gucci has also opened a new online concept store for NFT and other products, Vault. The same month also saw Italian luxury brand Dolce & Gabbana launch a members-only NFT platform, “DGFamily,” in collaboration with luxury fashion NFT marketplace UNXD.