Cody McGrath 
Chipotle, the iconic Mexican fast-food company has partnered with digital payment service Flexa, to enable crypto payments in its 2,950 US outlets.
Flexa announced the agreement on June 1st, and Chipotle will accept all 98 cryptocurrencies supported by Flexa, including Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and seven dollar-pegged stablecoins such as USD Coin (USDC). However, there is no mention of the announcement on Chipotle’s website.
The fast-food behemoth joins other significant firms such as Regal Theaters and Bancoagrcola, El Salvador’s largest financial institution, as Flexa partners with the bank to facilitate both retail and merchant Bitcoin transactions for its clients.
Chipotle has previously dabbled in the world of cryptocurrencies. It gave away $100,000 worth of Bitcoin together with free burritos in April 2021 to commemorate National Burrito Day, claiming to be the first U.S. restaurant brand to do so.
For the “chiptocurrency” promotion, Chipotle teamed up with former Ripple CTO Stefan Thomas to create a game in which participants could win a burrito or up to $25,000 in Bitcoin by guessing a code.
The game mocked Thomas’ loss of over 7,000 BTC after forgetting the password to his crypto wallet, which was valued over $208 million at the time.
Fast-food businesses embrace the metaverse
Other fast food companies have looked into or expressed interest in cryptocurrencies and metaverse uses for their brands.
In November 2021, Burger King teamed up with trading platform Robinhood to give out free Dogecoin (DOGE) BTC and ETH with meal purchases.
McDonald’s, which is notorious for mocking crypto Twitter, submitted a slew of trademark applications in February, including ones for “a virtual restaurant incorporating actual and virtual goods” in the Metaverse and “running a virtual restaurant with home delivery.”
Despite the market turmoil, crypto acceptance in the United States remains robust, and retailers have shown a willingness to integrate payment solutions to capitalize on the increased interest.
Only 4% of retailers presently take cryptocurrency payments, according to a Crypto.com global study issued in February, but nearly 60% expressed interest in accepting cryptocurrency payments within the next year.
Although merchant enthusiasm was strong overall, just about 25% of hotel industry respondents were enthusiastic about crypto payment acceptance.