Reading time: ~ 2 m
Two men who bought RadioShack in 2020 are converting it into cryptocurrency.
For years, electronics retailer RadioShack has used the slogan “You have questions, we have answers.”
Over the weekend, the company confirmed its move to Decentralized Finance (DeFi), the name for blockchain-based protocols that allow people to send, receive, trade, lend and borrow funds without intermediaries.
RadioShack DeFi, the website says, “will be the bridge between the CEO who controls global corporations and the new world of cryptocurrencies.”
According to documents on the website, “RadioShack and only RadioShack can” bridge the chasm of cryptocurrency mainstreaming. “
The website is touting a partnership with Atlas USV (Universal Value Vault), a DeFi protocol that allows you to build apps around it. RadioShack DeFi aims to start by creating a Decentralized Exchange (DEX) in the spirit of Uniswap or Sushiswap that uses pools of liquidity. This model allows token holders to directly trade any other token.
Atlas’s Ethereum-based USV token is fairly new so it doesn’t even rank among the 10,000+ assets tracked by CoinGecko or CoinMarketCap, although it can be traded on the DEX. According to RadioShack, the protocol “allows USV users to purchase third-party tokens on the open market and then transfer them to the Atlas USV treasury, in exchange for discounted USV tokens.”
eerie how much radioshack relaunching as a defi platform late in this bull market is like kodak reinventing itself with btc miners and an ICO in late 2017
— brantly.eth (@BrantlyMillegan) December 18, 2021
If you’ve never heard of Atlas USV, which supplies the technology for this venture, you might not be surprised to learn that it is the brainchild of Alex Mehr and Ty Lopez – the same people who bought RadioShack last year.
Lopez confirmed in a video posted on December 11 that he is “using RadioShack on the blockchain, this will be the first major mainstream brand to fully migrate to cryptocurrency.” He also announced the upcoming release of Atlas USV.
What are the odds the world economy flips to a majority crypto currency? Not as crazy as it seems.
I’m bringing my rich crypto friends on a Zoom training seminar this week (it’s free for those who join quickly).
Don’t miss this trend. Claim your seat:https://t.co/mNprvQd1jb pic.twitter.com/qRR4dyjSnU
— Tai Lopez (@tailopez) December 12, 2021
RadioShack, once a ubiquitous electronics store, did not survive the e-commerce boom; she filed for bankruptcy in 2015 and then in 2017. Since then, she has survived a humble existence after bankruptcy as a parts supplier for HobbyTown USA, maintaining several hundred franchise stores and maintaining an online store. Retail Ecommerce Ventures (REV), operated by CEO Mer and Executive Chairman Lopez, bought it in 2020.
In fact, REV owns many of the chains that used to define retail in the US, including Pier1, Linens’ N Things, and DressBarn. Its overall strategy is to steer bankrupt retailers out of the window and into e-commerce while also getting co-investors to participate.
RadioShackSwap will launch its own token: RADIO.
Interested members of the public can subscribe to the launch notification, but the plans are to distribute 10 billion RADIO tokens. The company has not yet announced how and to whom they will be distributed.
#RadioShack #switched #DeFi
