RadioShack is selling crypto and no one knows why

The murky world of cryptocurrency has a new ingredient from an unlikely source. Most players in the crypto scene are individual investors or e-commerce platforms looking for a new frontier, and it is relatively rare to see a retail company claim a stake in the market. The big exception to this trend is RadioShack, which took a big step into the crypto market in June with two products that have left people in the business world equal parts amused and confused.

Originally founded in 1921, RadioShack began as a small chain of stores selling radio products before expanding into a nationwide home entertainment empire. The company remained a retailer until the early 2000s, a period of rapid innovation that saw digital media surpass the older, physical technology that the chain sold in its stores. Where some technology retailers like Best Buy thrived, RadioShack stagnated, unable to update its products or business model for the 21st century. Crowded out of the market by Amazon and other online retailers, the company filed for bankruptcy in February 2015, ending its nearly century-long existence. Over the past decade, RadioShack has been relegated to the status of retail mythology alongside the likes of Blockbuster, but a recent corporate move is attempting to bring the brand back from the grave.

In November 2020, Retail Ecommerce Ventures (REV), owner of Pier 1 Imports and Modell’s Sporting Goods, purchased the then-depleted RadioShack assets with an undisclosed agenda for the company’s revitalization. Several months later, it was announced that RadioShack would soon launch a proprietary cryptocurrency exchange called RadioShack Swap. Cryptocurrency exchanges are relatively simple platforms that allow users to enter one cryptocurrency and exchange it for another coin amount of similar value. The thousands of individual cryptocurrencies on the market trend in wildly different directions and can lose or gain value quickly, so having a marketplace to transfer between coins is a significant part of the crypto ecosystem.

Alongside the RadioShack Swap, the company is launching two currencies of its own, known by their market trading aliases as $RADIO and $SHACK. In their two months of existence, neither coin has performed particularly well, with $SHACK trading at 20% of its original value and $RADIO at just 5% of its launch price. It’s no surprise that RadioShack’s new ownership is seeking new ways to establish a commercial foothold for the brand, but the choice to wade into the uncertain waters of cryptocurrency has certainly raised eyebrows.

The move to crypto is perhaps less shocking when you consider REV’s executive chairman, Tai Lopez, who has spent the past decade building a mysterious entrepreneurial career as a self-help guru and venture capitalist; he’s also a controversial figure who has often waded into questionable but occasionally profitable economic trends, so it’s no surprise that his bizarre plan to save RadioShack comes in the form of cryptocurrency. Lopez has experience in the marketing sector, but he may not be the best leader for a brand that has a lot of goodwill to build after faltering for the past decade. The crypto community was outraged when a coder active on the blockchain discovered in March that one of Lopez’s NFT projects was sending transaction funds to the development teams’ crypto wallets. The malpractice was not enough to blacklist Lopez from the cryptosphere, but the discovery dealt a significant blow to his reputation. One of RadioShack’s stated goals for entering the crypto space is to bring legitimacy to the market, and it doesn’t help that one of the company’s executives has shown a willingness to act recklessly with other people’s money.

It would make sense for RadioShack to do everything in its power to combat this image problem with a professional product rollout, but what the crypto world got was the opposite. The announcement of the new ventures came from a place few people knew existed: the verified RadioShack Twitter account. The account burst into activity in June with a series of posts about crypto exchange and proprietary coins. The account’s legitimacy was called into question by a number of unprofessional and simply immature tweets posted next to the crypto announcements. Some of the more terrible posts include “people from my high school are getting married and I’m criminally horny on the official radio shack account” and “Taking the second half of an edible after feeling nothing from the first half is always a bad idea . This chocolate bar made me fight for my life.” Most of the account’s tweets have nothing to do with the crypto exchange platform, and it wasn’t until one of the company’s interns temporarily dropped the schtick to confirm that the account had not been hacked that the Twitter community realized that the account was simply running a pathetic viral marketing campaign.

RadioShack’s online presence is not a total farce, and their website still advertises electronics products as well as a link to another page detailing the RadioShack Swap. The crypto site, despite containing the most important component of the brand’s identity, has a rudimentary user interface design that does little to reassure users that the platform is something to take seriously. The only meaningful information offered on the site is the company’s agenda, which is summarized as: “Our mission is to be the first protocol to bridge the gap to mainstream use of blockchain and cryptocurrencies.” It’s not obvious how the company will achieve this goal while offering two currencies and an exchange that works almost identically to its peers.

The biggest misconception created by RadioShack’s website is the notion that the crypto market can become functionally identical to the stock market. Cryptocurrencies, unlike stocks, do not fluctuate based on real changes in the business conditions of a company or entity, but rather due to obscure blockchain forces that the average person does not currently understand. Dogecoin, the meme currency based on the infamous meme of a Shiba Inu dog, does not experience occasional increases in value due to material growth potential, but rather the comic value of the coin. The fluctuations of the crypto market are not analogous to the stock market, which has a longer history of public understanding, and it is nonsensical to suggest that cryptocurrencies will stabilize by buying into them.

RadioShack has avoided scandal so far with its rebranding, but it looks like market fatigue and lack of interest may ultimately be the nail in the coffin for the fledgling campaign. There is little besides the absurd Twitter account to distinguish it from alternative coin developers, a significant disadvantage in a scene where name recognition often leads to success. The RadioShack name cannot offer a marketing boost because for years it has been associated with stagnation and failure, and the shrinking trade prices are likely to indicate impending collapse. Some brands are simply not cut out for evolving commercial landscapes, and it seems almost certain that REV’s venture is headed for a catastrophic bust.