Bitcoin (BTC -0.14%) could become a common way to pay for things faster than you might think. Suresh Kumar, the global chief technology officer of Walmart (WMT 2.02%), talked at Yahoo Finance’s All Markets Summit about how the world’s largest retailer plans to use cryptocurrency as a key part of its future payment strategy, both for real-world and digital goods. “Crypto will become an important part of how customers do business,” Kumar said. Bitcoin, which is used most often to make payments, would benefit the most. If a big store like Walmart really goes all-in on crypto, that would be a huge sign that crypto is here to stay and would be a good sign for Bitcoin.
The metaverse and crypto
So what’s behind this sudden interest in crypto as a way to pay? Walmart’s acceptance of the metaverse has been a big part of this. Kumar said that the amount of time Walmart customers spend in virtual worlds makes them want to buy and learn about new products. Once they are in these virtual worlds, they want to buy virtual goods, like new clothes for their online avatar. And this is where Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies come in.
Walmart has been helping the metaverse more and more as of earlier. It put Walmart Land and Walmart’s Universe of Play on Roblox, which is a famous metaverse gaming platform, in September. Walmart was clearly interested in how long people were spending on the platform. As of June 30, Roblox had 52.2 million every day active consumers, 11.3 billion engagement hours, 12 million creators, and 32 million different experiences.
The connection between Social media and crypto
Additionally, Walmart claimed that the corporation has had to reconsider the payment choices it should provide customers due to the changing methods in which they are use social media. For instance, Walmart’s social media livestream events have proven to be a fantastic method for shoppers to learn about new items and see how they are used in practice.While watching these events, you might wish to purchase the goods that are advertised in them, and cryptocurrency is being investigated as a frictionless method for people to pay for these products online. Walmart has experimented with livestream events that can be purchased on a variety of websites, including Twitter, TikTok, and YouTube.
Social media is also making it harder to tell the difference between e-commerce and crypto, especially when it comes to tokens that can’t be traded for cash (NFTs). People who buy NFTs through online marketplaces want to show them off on social media. In response to this need, Facebook and Instagram (from Meta Platforms) now let you link your virtual wallet with these NFTs to your social media accounts. Again, your virtual wallet that holds these NFTs can also hold cryptocurrencies, so as Kumar said in his presentation, crypto is right in the middle of what customers like to do.
Maybes about Walmart and cryptocurrency
The big caveat, of course, is that Kumar only talked about the metaverse and social media. For now, it seems like Walmart is still learning how to use crypto as part of its social media and metaverse strategy. He said that crypto could cause a “disruption in payment options,” but he didn’t say that Walmart stores would start accepting Bitcoin all of a sudden. So some of the headlines you might see on social media might not be telling you the whole story.
The largest validation for Bitcoin would be if Walmart made paying with Bitcoin a key part of both its online and in-store experiences. But Walmart does not accept cryptocurrency payments right now. Walmart has been said to be thinking about accepting Bitcoin as a form of payment for a long time, but nothing official has been said.
Clearly, the fact that Walmart is getting more engaged with the metaverse and cryptos is amazing news. People often point to Walmart’s patent applications for non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and crypto-tokens and the company’s recent acceptance of Bitcoin ATMs in stores as proof that the company is about to get serious. If and when Walmart goes all in on cryptocurrency, it could be a clear sign to buy Bitcoin.
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