In a year which began with memes helping to propel GameStop’s junk stock price into the stratosphere, it’s only fitting that the shrinking video game retailer should cap the frivolities off by cozying up to cryptocurrencies. Last week, GameStop apparently joined Flexa, a payment network that lets you pay for real-world stuff with blockchain assets, including the meme currency Dogecoin.
“Enter the metaverse,” Flexa wrote on December 16 in an announcement that had nothing to do with the “metaverse.” “GameStop is now on Flexa, and we’re celebrating by enabling support for four new metaverse assets: Axie Infinity Shard, MANA, SAND, and Smooth Love Potion are now accepted anywhere on the Flexa network.”
Flexa is an app that connects stores and restaurants with crypto-enthusiasts so that the latter can spend their Bitcoin and other environment-destroying currencies for goods and services in the real world. One of those stores now appears to be GameStop, which will apparently let you pre-order games like Pokémon Legends: Arceus using Smooth Love Potions which are currently worth $0.03071 each.
GameStop did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Cryptocurrencies have been breeding like rabbits this year, but few have become as popular, or showcased the absurdity of the entire enterprise so well, as Dogecoin. A joke inspired by the decade-old Doge meme and hatched by two software engineers back in 2013, the meme-crypto shot up to $0.71 earlier this year thanks to Elon Musk’s tweets. Despite plummeting in the months since, the value still bounces around wildly, and one of its creators is on the record calling cryptocurrency a “right-wing, hyper-capitalist” scam.
Unlike Dogecoin, GameStop’s stock has, despite some recent bumps, continued to coast at a once unthinkable $150 a share. Of course, that hasn’t actually translated into better working conditions at the company, where employees are at the breaking point thanks in part to understaffing and terrible pay. It’s unclear how the new crypto collaboration will help them, but GameStop customers at least can now rest easy knowing it’s easier than ever to liquidate their Dogecoin holdings by pouring it all into Funko Pops.
