Now Starbucks could join the metaverse as well. In addition to Heineken Silver beer, coffee could also soon be enjoyed digitally. Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz announced that Starbucks could soon launch NFTs or even open a digital subsidiary. After luxury clothing and real estate, the food industry now seems to be moving into the metaverse.
Luxury Shopping with Cryptos
According to VogueBusiness, the luxury brand Off-White now allows its customers to pay with cryptocurrencies. After several large and luxurious fashion brands already presented themselves in the metaverse and hosted digital fashion shows, Off-White now allows its customers to pay for real fashion with cryptos for the first time. “This is another important step in the growth of the brand, that looks towards the future including Web 3.0 technologies, understanding the needs and desires of its ever evolving customer base,” Off-White itself explained. The fluctuating exchange rates of the currencies are to be absorbed by a system, whereby payment in the shop is always made at the current exchange rate. With Hublot, Phillip Plein and now Off-White, luxury shopping with cryptos seems to be becoming more and more attractive.
A UK NFT
In a press release on 4 April, the UK Finance Minister states that the UK now wants to get involved with cryptos. “It’s my ambition to make the UK a global hub for cryptoasset technology […].” Measures to achieve this would include a working group focusing on the crypto industry and an NFT in collaboration with the Royal Mint. As a result, after the already tech-based countries of Asia and especially South Korea, the United Kingdom is now also entering the NFT market.
Art on the moon
The US artist Jeff Koons wants to shoot some of his sculptures onto the moon. They can be bought on Earth as NFT. This is how the digital rights to the sculptures are acquired. Through this action Koons wants to make his art universal and above all global.
A bar in metaverse
Now alcohol has also entered the Metaversum. In a press release, Heineken, a major beer brewer, announces that in the future it will sell Heineken Silver, a virtual beer in the metaverse.
“Instead of hops harvested from fields, the virtual Heineken Silver will be brewed with binary-coded hops grown by NPC farmers,” Heineken continued. This would create a beer that visitors to the virtual Heineken brewery in Decantraland can enjoy. This has already been tested at a product launch in the virtual brewery, where Heineken Silver was served alongside virtual lobster and caviar.
JP Morgan Subsidiary in metaverse now
Now JP Morgan also wants to enter the metaverse. After purchasing a property in the metaverse, JP Morgan positions itself clearly on the metaverse in its strategy paper “Opportunities in the metaverse”.
Its approach to payments and financial infrastructure, JP Morgan says, could be usefully integrated into the metaverse. The quest for constant innovation and better ways of organising financial transactions and payments is just one of the points that JP Morgan addresses. Now it seems that the largest bank in the USA is also gaining a foothold in the metaverse.
