Bakkt President Adam White has hinted that the company might be on the verge of fulfilling a long-time ambition for crypto fans – the ubiquitous coffee shop Bitcoin purchase. White tweeted that Starbucks app users could now select Bakkt Cash as a payment option, allowing them to buy their coffee with Bitcoin stored on the Bakkt platform. Rumors about Starbucks accepting Bitcoin have been doing the rounds for almost two years , and it seems that the promise could soon become a reality.
We’re also reducing payment costs for merchants which improves their bottom line. Open your @Starbucks app to see our first direct integration and select @Bakkt to sign up for our Early Access Program pic.twitter.com/sZ3YlE0Sj9
— Adam White (@WhiteAdamL) March 16, 2020
Bakkt and Starbucks Friends from Birth
The hype around Bakkt and Starbucks working in tandem to allow crypto holders to pay for their coffee in Bitcoin started in 2018 as soon as it was revealed that the coffee chain was an investor in the platform. This bubble was burst shortly after however when Starbucks themselves denounced the rumors of Bitcoin acceptance as just that.
Just three months after this however, Bakkt CEO Kelly Loeffler told Consensus Invest that it was working with Starbucks to accept Bitcoin. Since then the word has been ‘when’ not ‘if’ Bakkt and Starbucks would make their liaison official, especially when it was revealed in October last year that Bakkt was working on a consumer app and that Starbucks would be its guinea pig.
Bakkt Cash Could Help Silence Critics
Bakkt Cash is clearly that consumer app, and White says it will help reduce the cost to the merchant of each purchase, which can be up to 3% for each card transaction. Of course the actual transaction fee is likely to fluctuate in line with Bitcoin’s transaction fee, but it will still be much lower than the likes of Visa and Mastercard.
Achieving a successful linkup between the world’s biggest cryptocurrency and one of the world’s top coffee chains would be an almighty feather in Bitcoin’s cap and would once and for all silence the critics who say that you can’t buy anything with Bitcoin.
