Gucci becomes the first major fashion brand to accept ApeCoin (APE) payments

Gucci a high-end Italian fashion giant, has become the first major brand to accept ApeCoin (APE) payments. Gucci made the announcement yesterday evening through a tweet saying:

“Excited to announce that Gucci will become the first major brand to allow customers to pay for purchases in-store with ApeCoin, via BitPay”

Besides being increasing the selection of digital assets that Gucci customers can use to pay for products, the addition of ApeCoin is the latest significant Web3 initiative for the fashion brand.

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Before the addition of ApeCoin, Gucci accepted 12 other digital assets as payment methods, which it added in May this year. The accepted cryptocurrencies include Bitcoin (BTC), Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Ether (ETH), Shiba Inu (SHIB), Dogecoin (DOGE), Litecoin (LTC), and five US dollar-pegged stablecoins.

ApeCoin project mainstream exposure

Gucci’s move is expected to not only further the fashion brand’s venture into Web3 but also provide the ApeCoin project with significant mainstream exposure and bring additional utility to the APE cryptocurrency.

Following the announcement, Gucci customers in the USA will be able to buy items in-store using the APE token through an infrastructure provided by BitPay, a firm that has continuously helped big companies including the likes of AMC Theaters to accept crypto payments.

With this move, Gucci seems to be making a major gamble, especially following the ongoing crypto bear market. However, the fashion brand is keen to advance its appetite to venture into the Web3 market and ApeCoin, which is also the utility token of the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) project. Besides, APE has gained over 11% in the past seven days.

The first of Gucci’s venture into the Web3 industry was in February this year when the fashion brand launched its “SUPERGUCCI” NFT collection in partnership with vinyl toy brand SUPERPLASTIC. One month later, Gucci went ahead to roll out the “Gucci Grail” NFT collection that targeted owners of top NFT projects like BAYC.