While Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE:CMG) shares are up on Thursday morning, they were quiet during Wednesday’s after-hours trading session after it was announced the international fast-casual Mexican restaurant would begin to accept Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) as a form of payment.
What happened: Chipotle foreshadowed its involvement with crypto on National Burrito Day, when the restaurant worked with Coil to create the promotional "Burritos or Bitcoin" interactive game, in which hungry participants had multiple chances to win either a burrito or a sum of Bitcoin by breaking a six-digit digital wallet code.
On Wednesday, digital payments platform Flexa took to blogging platform Medium to announce it would partner with Chipotle to accept Bitcoin as a form of payment.
“Now you can spend your bitcoin and other digital currencies from any Flexa-enabled app for burritos, bowls, and more at any Chipotle restaurant in the United States — making Chipotle the latest merchant to accept digital currency payments with Flexa,” the company noted on Medium.
Why it matters: Chipotle now joins a growing number of eateries that have joined with Flexa to accept cryptocurrency. While Starbuck Corporation (NASDAQ:SBUX) is the largest company to use Flexa to accept Bitcoin, Chipotle is now the second-largest corporation to use the platform to experiment with cryptocurrency payments.
This could attract competitors to the space, increasing the utility and functionality of multiple cryptos, something crypto-fans have been pining for.
For customers to participate in this new form of payment, they must download the SPEDN or Gemini app, load funds and order from their nearest Chipotle.
CMG Price Action: Chipotle shares are up 0.45% at $1,388.10 Thursday morning.
Photo: Courtesy Chipotle
