Even though the price of cryptocurrencies has dropped, German fashion designer Philipp Plein, whose online store began accepting them in August, predicts a boom in purchases of digital tokens this year.
Plein expects crypto purchases to reach 15 million euros ($15.8 million) to 20 million euros in 2022. Last year, such payments contributed for about 3% of Plein’s total online income of almost 100 million euros.
Plein’s prediction is that as digital assets become more mainstream, stores will have more opportunity to grow.
Technical limitations and the volatile nature of digital assets have limited cryptocurrency adoption among retailers; Bitcoin has lost more than 40% of its value since November, and most other tokens have lost considerably more.
We saw that there was a big audience within the crypto community itself, so we gained a lot of new clients, by adding cryptocurrencies as a mode of payment, Plein said.
Plein began accepting cryptocurrencies in August, just as Bitcoin had begun a three-month rise that would see it reach close to $69,000. Since then, the most valuable token has dropped to just about $39,000.
The Swiss designer’s eponymous brand now accepts 25 tokens as payment, up from 15 in August. These include Bitcoin and Ether. Customers may now pay with cryptocurrency at its store in London’s Mayfair district, which opened last week. Plein, who is known for spectacular fashion displays that include robots, expensive automobiles, and helicopters, claims to own 170 Bitcoin, which is worth almost $6.6 million at current pricing.
