CEO Howard Schultz has confirmed that Starbucks will be entering the Metaverse in 2022.  NFT Project On The Horizon The initial announcement of the news came from billionaire entrepreneur Howard Schultz, who was speaking at an Open Forum on April 4. He announced that the company would be entering the NFT space before the end of 2022. The Starbucks team confirmed the news a few hours later by tweeting about it from its official Starbucks News Twitter handle. Further details regarding the NFT project or an exact date are yet to be shared by the company.  New CEO Builds Up Starbucks’ “Treasure Trove Of Assets” Schultz has been recently appointed as CEO of the company, and the April 4th speech was the first time he addressed the team as their leader. The crypto community is hopeful that the new CEO will introduce more crypto-friendly measures for Starbucks, especially now that multiple mainstream companies are doing the same. NFT launches, Metaverse experiences, crypto payments, and other crypto and blockchain projects are quite common in retail and service spaces.  During the speech, Schultz spoke about NFTs and how Starbucks is perfectly poised to enter this relatively young ecosystem. He said,  “If you look at the companies, the brands, the celebrities, the influencers that are trying to create a digital NFT platform and business, I can’t find one of them that has the treasure trove of assets that Starbucks has, from collectibles to the entire heritage of the company.” Starbucks + Bakkt Collaboration Because of its strong global presence and retail ecosystem, crypto industry leaders do believe that Starbucks’ NFT venture could be a successful one. If the company does enter the NFT space, it will not be its first venture into crypto. Back in 2019, Starbucks partnered with the crypto company Bakkt to become its first launch partner for a payments service. Then in March 2021, the crypto platform launched its digital wallet, the Bakkt App, allowing Starbucks customers to recharge their Starbucks Card. The digital wallet would also allow repeat customers to convert supported loyalty and reward points, along with Bitcoin, to recharge their balance on their Starbucks account.  VP of Global Digital Commerce of Starbucks, Karl Hebert had said,  “Starbucks is proud to be an innovation partner with Bakkt. Our teams worked closely together as Bakkt sought input in developing a unique and trusted payment experience that enables customers to unlock the value of their digital assets in the form of US dollars.” Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.