Will Crypto Stores Explode Like Apple Stores Or Will They Flop?

At the end of July, Solana (SUN -32.69%) launched a first-of-its-kind crypto retail experience in the heart of New York City. Then, in October, it followed up with the launch of another Solana store in Miami.

In many ways, this new Solana store concept resembles one apple Store — a sleek, high-tech space filled with real-world items to buy, a regular schedule of events, and a knowledgeable dealer to get you started on your crypto journey.

So are crypto stores part of an interesting new trend that will finally tip crypto into the popular mainstream? Here’s a look at several other types of crypto trading experiences to see what they have in common. Perhaps these unique characteristics will be enough to help this new trend to blow up.

Image source: Getty Images.

The crypto store

For now, the Solana Spaces store in New York is the template for what a crypto retail experience should be. It looks and feels a lot like an Apple Store. You can learn about Solana NFTs, check out merchandise like Solana sneakers, and get help with your crypto questions. Solana refers to this as an “embassy” rather than a store, and the idea is that people will spend a lot of time there learning about crypto.

Online reviews of Solana Spaces have been glowing. It is easy to see how this same type of store concept could be imitated by rival cryptos trying to attract new users, developers and investors.

The pop-up shop

However, a much more typical crypto store is something that can best be called a “pop-up” store. In New York City, there are already pop-up restaurants and pop-up fashion stores, so why not a pop-up crypto store? Back in December 2021, for example, Coin base (COIN -10.78%) hosted a pop-up shop in New York City as a celebration of crypto, NFT, street fashion and art. This was several months before Coinbase began offering NFTs on its platform, so the timing obviously made sense.

The blurring of the boundaries between the traditional art world and the NFT art world opens up new possibilities. NFT marketplace SuperRare, for example, opened a pop-up NFT art gallery in New York City’s Soho district. This makes sense since SuperRare specializes in unique NFTs from emerging artists and Soho has some of the best art galleries in the nation.

Other store concepts

Stores can also sell crypto-related items alongside their primary items. For example, high-end luxury brand Dolce & Gabbana installed a temporary NFT art gallery in its NYC flagship store on Fifth Avenue to celebrate the launch of an expensive new NFT collection. And Los Angeles-based fashion retailer Fred Segal has integrated crypto and NFTs into new kinds of retail experiences with digital products.

There are many other creative ways to blur the line between traditional stores and crypto stores. For example, Ape Water — a watermark inspired by the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT collection and ApeCoin (MONKEY -13.38%) crypto — is doing a store takeover of the legendary Pink Dot on Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood in November. As part of an initial plan for the statewide distribution of Ape Water in California, Pink Dot will stock bottles of Ape Water with Bored Apes.

Location, location, location

So what do all these store concepts have in common? The short answer is: “Location, location, location.”

All the crypto experiences in New York City, for example, are in high-density, high-traffic neighborhoods: Fifth Avenue, Chelsea, Soho, and Hudson Yards. The new Solana “embassy” in Miami is located in the funky and artsy Wynwood district. For now, it’s hard to imagine crypto stores popping up in bland suburban malls.

Recognizing that millennial investors are more likely to drop in than older investors, these crypto trading experiences have focused on adding elements that appeal to younger investors, such as art, music, sports and celebrity culture. The new Solana store in Miami, for example, features exclusive celebrity-inspired merchandise, a co-working lounge and an NFT-inspired coffee bar. The Coinbase pop-up in New York featured limited edition T-shirts and toys in Japanese vending machines.

Will crypto go mainstream?

Only time will tell if any of these crypto trading experiences pan out. But there is clearly a blurring of the lines between traditional retail and the brave new world of crypto trading. I’m particularly intrigued by cryptos like Solana that mimic the Apple Store model and bring crypto to the masses. When Solana has its new Saga mobile phones ready for purchase in early 2023, this real product could be a big draw for people who want to come in and learn more about crypto.

Remember: People were very skeptical when Apple opened its first store in 2001, so it’s easy to see why people are skeptical of Solana more than 20 years later.

At the very least, the presence of more of these crypto trading experiences could help crypto become mainstream. People who are intimidated by cryptocurrency are more likely to invest if they can get help in a cool, funky environment and fiddle with new crypto gadgets and devices before actually buying them.

That’s why I’m so optimistic about Solana’s future prospects: It makes crypto easier to understand and use, and doing it in a way that Apple has already shown can be very successful.