Radioshack, the electronics-associated brand, has announced it will now pivot to a cryptocurrency-centric model. The company informed that its focus will be to “bridge the gap” to bring cryptocurrency into mainstream use. This is the latest iteration in the story of the brand, which was known for offering electronic products at a retail level in the ’70s and ’80s.
Radioshack Introduces Defi Business
Radioshack, a 100-year-old brand associated with consumer electronic devices and personal computers in the ’70s and ’80s, is now pivoting its operations to a cryptocurrency model, according to data provided by the company. The mission of this new iteration of the company will be to “bring cryptocurrency to the mainstream.”
For this, Radioshack will start with launching a decentralized exchange, or a “swap,” to allow its users to exchange currencies for others without having to register in a commercial exchange. The backend for this endeavor, Radioshack explains, will be provided by a partner protocol called Atlas USV. The company estimates that this partnership will allow this new swap to provide traders with less slippage because the exchange is expected to work with an owned liquidity model.
If launched, the exchange will have its own native token, called RADIO.
Down Two Times, and Resurrected
Radioshack’s path to crypto comes after the company filed for bankruptcy protection twice in 2015 and 2017, posting its last green numbers in 2011. However, that brand was resurrected and acquired last year, to form part of a portfolio of brands in the hands of two investors. Alex Mehr and Tai Lopez acquired the brand and they are now putting it at work in this new cryptocurrency-based focus.
The investors declared, at the time of the acquisition of the brand, that they didn’t have the intention of reviving the old electronics retail business and aimed to turn Radioshack into an online marketplace. Merh declared:
We bought the raw material to build a big business. Brand means trust. And the brand is very, very strong. I have quantifiable data that the brand is very strong.
Radioshack is not the only legacy company that has pivoted to crypto lately. Kodak, a photography-related brand, also made its crypto bet back in 2018, when it announced the launch of its own token called Kodakcoin, which would serve for users to register their photos on a platform and license them for other uses. However, this shift was short-lived, and Kodakcoin never launched.
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