RadioShack made a name for itself as the early king of the tech world, only to be left behind as PCs and portables became standard. Now the ghost of the onetime retail giant is trying to rise again—and it’s hoping cryptocurrencies will be the path to salvation.
The RadioShack most children of the ’80s remember is long gone, of course. The retailer filed for bankruptcy in 2015, then again in 2017. Its brick-and-mortar stores shut down long ago, but the well-known name was bought by entrepreneur investors Alex Mehr and Tai Lopez. Two months ago, the pair relaunched the brand online as a cryptocurrency swap, to supplement the tech offerings and branded retro apparel the company was previously selling.
To date, the company says, RadioShack Swap, as the new division is called, has seen trading volume of nearly $40 million. The idea of the revised RadioShack is to create a way for users to more easily move in and out of different tokens.
“The launch of RadioShack Swap has been extremely well received, with daily trading volumes averaging anywhere from $500,000 to $2 million,” said Mehr in a statement. “The swap is adding two or three new tokens every week, and we continue to see robust interest among gaming-token startups, in particular.”
To date, the company says, about 10,000 traders have utilized RadioShack Swamp to exchange cryptocurrencies, attracted by its lower swap fees compared to competitors.
Spurred on by the numbers it has seen in its crypto swap, RadioShack’s retail site is going to embrace digital currencies as well, adding storage wallets and NFTs as well as crypto merchandise by artists.
“The crypto scene is bursting with creativity, and we’re thrilled to make RadioShack…a central marketplace and consumer-facing hub,” said Lopez.
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