Story By:  Ana Marjanovic, Sub-Editor: Michael Leidig, Agency:  Newsflash

Luxury fashion house Gucci has announced they are accepting cryptocurrency payments at certain stores at the end of this month.

Gucci’s crypto program will initially be trialed at five stores in the US with plans to extend it across all non-franchise stores in North America by the summer.

Gucci will reportedly use an undisclosed service provider to gather Bitcoin price values in real time from numerous crypto exchanges.

Gucci president and CEO Marco Bizzarri said: “Gucci is looking to embrace new technologies when they can provide an enhanced experience for our customers.

“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.”

The luxury brand joins other fashion retailers in testing their own cryptocurrency pilot project, including Off-White.

In March, Off-White announced that shops in London, Paris and Milan will start accepting Bitcoin, Binance Coin, Ripple, Ethereum, USD Coin, and Tether as payment.

Virgil Abloh, the late founder of Off-White, also announced Decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) and non-fungible token (NFT) plans for the company.

Gucci’s parent company Kering introduced an in-house game for employees this week that will help teach them about Web3 technology and NFTs.

Last year, Gucci became the first fashion brand to release an NFT in the form of a film with the value of USD 25,000.

Following in the footsteps of AI Dente and Adidas, Gucci also bought digital real estate on The Sandbox metaverse.