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World’s first NFT-themed restaurant halts crypto payments
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World’s first NFT-themed restaurant halts crypto payments

Jinia Shawdagor
Jinia Shawdagor
January 31st, 2023
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Advertiser Disclosure
  • Bored & Hungry launched in April and started accepting payments in ETH and APE.
  • The prices of ETH and APE are down 60% and 58%, respectively, since mid-April.
  • It remains unclear whether Bored & Hungry will restore the crypto payment option.

Bored & Hungry, a Los Angeles-based restaurant featuring a Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) theme, has suspended crypto payments. Los Angeles Times reported yesterday, citing an employee from the fast-food establishment. According to the employee, who declined to give their name, Bored & Hungry is currently not accepting crypto payments.

The employee also refused to disclose when the establishment took down the crypto payment option. Additionally, they did not reveal when or if Bored & Hungry intends to restore the resume crypto payments.

Bored & Hungry priced its delicacies in US dollars and accepted dollars alongside two cryptocurrencies, Ethereum (ETH) and ApeCoin (APE). The move to cut crypto payments comes after the company launched on April 9, 2022.

While it remains unknown why Bored & Hungry halted crypto payments, the bearish market sentiment likely influenced the decision. At the time of Bored & Hungry’s launch, ETH traded between $3,287.47 and $3,261.96. On the other hand, APE was changing hands between $10.63 and $11.04.

Since then, events like the collapse of the Terra ecosystem and Celsius Network suspending withdrawals due to liquidity issues have seen tokens plunge significantly. At the time of writing, ETH is trading at $1,228.32, representing a 62% drop since April 9. On the other hand, APE is changing hands at $4.60 after plunging 58% since the restaurant’s launch.

Most Bored & Hungry customers are not crypto enthusiasts

Apart from the poor performance of the crypto industry, most Bored & Hungry patrons are not hardcore crypto fans.

According to Customer Jessica Perez, she and her friends frequent the establishment because of its food.

She added,

We rate this up there with In-N-Out, maybe even better.

While some customers have embraced crypto, they are not keen on spending their holdings on food. Marc Coloma, a Bored & Hungry customer, said ETH is ideal for purchasing NFTs and other blockchain transactions. However, he claims ETH is not well suited for buying food.

Explaining why people do not want to pay for food in ETH, Coloma said,

People want to hold onto their ethereum. They’re not gonna want to use it.

At the time of writing, Bored & Hungry’s Ethereum wallet has 0.2084 ETH worth $255.77 and 22 APE worth $101.86.

Contributors

Jinia Shawdagor
Writer
Jinia is a fintech writer based in Sweden. With years of experience, she has written about cryptocurrency and blockchain for renowned publications such as Cointelegraph, Bitcoinist, Invezz, etc. She loves gardening, traveling, and extracting joy and happiness from the little things in life.