Italy's Gucci becomes first major brand to accept IPcoin payments

Italian high-end fashion giant Gucci has become the first major brand to accept payments in the APE Coin (APE) affiliate of the AIP Yacht Club.

The move was announced on Monday and could provide the ipcoin project with significant prime exposure besides providing more interest to cryptocurrencies, CoinTelegraph reported.

Gucci customers in the US will now be able to purchase in-store items using APE, while the payment infrastructure will be provided by BitPay, a company that has helped big names like AMC Theaters accept crypto payments in the past.

Despite the ongoing bear market for cryptocurrencies, the fashion brand has plunged dangerously into the cryptocurrency sector this year.

In February, Gucci launched its Super Gucci Group of non-fungible tokens in collaboration with toy brand Superplastic.

The following month, Gucci introduced its non-fungible token group Gucci Grail, which was aimed at owners of top non-fungible token projects such as BAYC.

In May, the company then announced plans to accept 12 crypto-assets as payment methods across 111 stores in North America.

The list included Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Ethereum (ETH), Rapid Bitcoin (wBTC), Litecoin (LTC), SHIB, Dogecoin (DOGE) and five US dollar stablecoins.