On Friday, news hit the airwaves about Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) teaming up with Microsoft and the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) to create Bakkt. ICE owns the New York Stock Exchange, and the platform made its formal announcement of Bakkt via an official press release. However, Starbucks not accepting cryptocurrency is the hot news now.
ICE for Digital Assets
“Bakkt is designed to serve as a scalable on-ramp for institutional, merchant and consumer participation in digital assets by promoting greater efficiency, security and utility,” said Kelly Loeffler, CEO of Bakkt in the press release. “We are collaborating to build an open platform that helps unlock the transformative potential of digital assets across global markets and commerce.”
Bakkt aims to offer a federally regulated market for cryptocurrencies. The new platform will most likely target Bitcoin (BTC) specifically and could transform it into a trusted global currency with broad usage.
This is big news for the cryptocurrency industry, as adoption and day-to-day use are currently what is holding back the industry. As mentioned by ICE via the press release, the company isn’t acting alone.
The Rumors are False: Starbucks Not Accepting Cryptocurrency
When news broke on Friday, many media sources reported that Starbucks had announced that it would be accepting Bitcoin. Other sources reported that the company itself specifically announced the collaboration with ICE and Microsoft. That is what you call ‘fake news.’
A Starbucks employee finally responded to the claims via a news source named Motherboard. The Starbucks spokesperson said via email:
“It is important to clarify that we are not accepting digital assets at Starbucks. Rather the exchange will convert digital assets like Bitcoin into US dollars, which can be used at Starbucks. At the current time, we are announcing the launch of trading and conversion of Bitcoin. However, we will continue to talk with customers and regulators as the space evolves.”
This news is rather surprising because CNBC ran with the headline “New Starbucks partnership with Microsoft allows Customers to pay for Frappuccinos with bitcoin.”
Just goes to show you can’t believe everything you read unless it’s coming directly from the horse’s mouth. Sorry Starbucks fan, you can’t buy your lattes directly with Bitcoin.
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Featured Image: TNW
