Reports seem to show that Starbucks seems to be going all in on cryptocurrency, prodominetly bitcoin. Starbucks, like many others, are anticipating the bitcoin ETF.
Starbucks, the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), and Microsoft among many others, announced last Friday that they are working to launch a new company called Bakkt. The company will focus on allowing consumers to use bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Bakkt will leverage the Microsoft cloud to create an open and regulated, digital asset ecosystem for cryptocurrencies.
They will soon have a U.S. regulated exchange and they have a licensed Cryprocurrency storage warehouse which is how commodities are stored and protected which is going to make it a lot easier for an ETF to come through , pending the SEC's decision.
Starbucks and a major exchange are taking cryptocurrency very seriously. This could definitely help bitcoin make its stand as a mainstream global currency amoungst other currencies like the dollar. It may also help boost other cryptocurrency prices, which have struggled since the since early 2018.
This development does not help the arguments of many cryptocurrency critics who suggests cryptocurrencies are impractical and have no real world use case.
Starbucks getting into cryptocurrencies will make them much more mainstream. If this is a sign of whats ahead, this could be very very good news for the entire crypto ecosystem.