Bitcoin payments on Starbucks are not happening soon

The recent news that Starbucks has partnered with Microsoft, the International Exchange and a few other companies to launch a cryptocurrency initiative called Bakkt has fueled the reports according to which Starbucks is preparing to start accepting Bitcoin in its stores.

Speaking to the motherboard, however, the company stated that this is not true.

"Customers will not be able to pay Frappuccino with bitcoins," a Starbucks spokesperson said, refuting a CNBC story published Friday.

The Starbucks press release, dated August 1, said Bakkt will be a "global digital asset-regulated ecosystem" that will allow customers and institutions "to buy, sell, store and spend digital resources on a seamless global network. continuity. "

But initially Bakkt will allow users to exchange and convert Bitcoins into fiat currencies, which (of course) can be used by Starbucks.

Being the first significant foray into the Starbucks cryptocurrency space, as well as a platform that will likely bring Bitcoin to the attention of traditional users, Bakkt is an advantage for cryptocurrency supporters. But at the moment, it seems that Starbucks is more interested in helping customers turn bitcoins into dollars than actually use them for purchases in their stores.

A spokesperson for Starbucks told Motherboard that the company "will continue to talk to customers and regulators as space evolves," but it seems that spending Bitcoin directly or any other cryptocurrency at Starbucks is still far away.

Bitcoin's price has been declining since the end of July, when it reached its two-month high of $ 8.340 according to CoinMarketCap. At this time, Bitcoin is trading at $ 6.993 with a market capitalization of $ 120 billion.

Disclosure: The author of this text has or has recently owned a number of cryptocurrencies, including BTC and ETH.