Solana Spaces will close down its two Solana (SOL)-themed, community-oriented retail stores in New York City and Miami at the end of the month, as the physical stores didn't onboard as many users as it initially anticipated. Solana Spaces tweeted the news on Feb. 21 sharing a note from its founder, Vibhu Norby, explaining the reasons behind the store shutdowns. The following is a note from our founder, @vibhu. Dear @solanaspaces community, We’ve made the difficult decision to sunset our stores in NYC and Miami by the end of February, and to pivot our Solana onboarding efforts into digital products …

Consumers in India are getting more options for a digital shopping experience as major local e-commerce platforms increasingly experiment with blockchain and metaverse. Indian shoppers can try out products from brands like Puma and Nivea in the gamified, interactive metaverse. That is thanks to local e-commerce giant Flipkart launching a metaverse space for consumers to discover products in a photorealistic virtual destination and shop. Flipkart officially announced the launch of Flipverse on Oct. 17, aiming to bridge the best of the online and offline shopping experience. Developed in collaboration with Polygon-incubated organization eDAO, Flipverse allows shoppers to create a metaverse …

Major global e-commerce platform Shopify announced a partnership with Novel, a no-code Web3 commerce platform, to make Web3 technologies accessible and approachable for all merchants. As part of the partnership, Novel launched an app on the Shopify App Store, which equips existing merchants on Shopify with tools to experience Web3 innovation in ecommerce without any technical knowledge or time and monetary commitments. The Novel Shopify app delivers two primary features, minting and distribution and utility. The minting and distribution feature allows users to generate art for a new nonfungible token (NFT) collection or upload an existing NFT collection. Novel can …

A bottle of 52-year-old whisky made at Japan’s famous defunct Karuizawa distillery is being auctioned off as a nonfungible token (NFT). The starting price for the NFT and bottle of whisky is a dizzying $75,000, or about 62 Ether (ETH). Direct-to-Customer NFT wine and spirits marketplace BlockBar is handling the auction. To whisky collectors, the ultra-rare bottle of whisky from “The Last Masterpiece” cask made in 1970 is attractive, as there are now only 211 bottles of it left, according to a Tuesday report by Finbold. Now, an NFT collector can bolster their collection with a token that verifies authentic …

The popular Mexican fast-food chain Chipotle is now accepting cryptocurrency payments through digital payment provider Flexa at all of its over 2,950 United States-based restaurants. Flexa announced the partnership on Wednesday which will see Chipotle accept all the 98 cryptocurrencies Flexa currently supports including Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) and seven U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoins like USD Coin (USDC). Chipotle’s website does not contain any information on the announcement, however. Bitcoin, but make it **burritos.** We’re delighted to share that @ChipotleTweets is now accepting payments in #bitcoin, #ether, #dogecoin, and more, exclusively through Flexa. https://t.co/W0ktwPX7i3 — Flexa (@FlexaHQ) June 1, 2022 The …

Following the announced integration of the payment app Strike with e-commerce platform Shopify to accept Bitcoin (BTC) through the Lightning Network, the crypto community raised concerns over the legal implications of the move. Crypto researcher Matt Ahlborg believes that the event is a very significant development for BTC as it allows the offloading of BTC without the need to go through the know-your-customer (KYC) process. What Jack Mallers is really saying is that you will be soon be able to offload your Bitcoins in the real world without KYC'ing through an exchange first. If this is true, it is actually …

The South Korean people and an increasing number of major companies in the country have begun to embrace and integrate the Metaverse into their everyday lives in new and unexpected ways. Two major retailers in the country have recently introduced Metaverse and AI elements to shoppers to enhance their shopping experience. GS Shop introduced home shopping via the Metaverse on Nov. 16 by showing the inner workings of a food production facility. It aimed to reassure customers of the quality of the facility and the food that was for sale. GS Shop turned scans of the physical facility into 3D …

E-commerce giant JD.com took payments in China’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) at a massive local shopping event. JD.com accepted digital yuan (e-CNY) for payment on its e-commerce application for the Singles Day promotion period which began on Oct. 31 and ended on Nov. 11, the firm confirmed on Thursday. Singles Day is an unofficial shopping holiday in the country that also celebrates people who aren't in a romantic relationship. “100,000 people had used e-CNY on JD.com’s app during the Singles Day promotion period as of today,” a spokesperson for JD.com told Cointelegraph. “We will continue to work with related …

Bitcoin (BTC) turned out to be a far more attractive prize than airline miles or other cashback rewards, new data from BlockFi suggests. It’s been three months since the New York-based crypto loans startup launched its Visa-backed Bitcoin rewards credit cards, BlockFi Rewards Visa Signature Credit Card, to customers. The card offers rewards in Bitcoin instead of using a more traditional points system. According to the company, if the average Bitcoin rewards card owner continues the shopping habit seen in these first three months, they'll be on track to spend more than $30,000 per year on average. This is almost …

The price of Litecoin (LTC) rose to more than $237 earlier on Monday following erroneous reports from major news outlets that United States retailer Walmart would be introducing a payment option for the cryptocurrency on all of its e-commerce websites. CNBC, Reuters, Decrypt and others reported on Monday that Walmart planned to have a “Pay with Litecoin Option” for its retail websites starting on Oct. 1 as part of a partnership with the Litecoin Foundation, the organization financing and promoting adoption of the Litecoin ecosystem. The reports seemed to spawn from a single press release through distribution service GlobeNewsWire. The …

Dash has announced the launch of DashDirect — a consumer app that allows users to spend the DASH cryptocurrency in stores across America. In an announcement released on Tuesday, Dash revealed that the new customer-focused app will offer up to 12% in savings on purchases by users. Detailing the rebates and discount features, Mashall Greenwald, DashDirect Founder and CEO of CrayPay told Cointelegraph: “After you enter the exact amount of your current purchase in the app, an immediate discount of up to 12% is applied,” adding: “This allows anyone to spend Dash for everyday purchases as easily as using USD, …

An app says it offers crypto rewards for shoppers who make purchases at some of the world’s best-known e-commerce platforms — including eBay, Amazon, Lazada, Best Buy and Nike. Inevitably, one of the downsides of indulging in a little bit of retail therapy every now and again means that you’re left with less cash after splashing out on a brand-new pair of jeans or some headphones. Social Good Foundation Inc., the operating company behind SocialGood, says that it aims to change the status quo — and end a vicious cycle that means many everyday consumers struggle to amass savings, irrespective …