29.03.2024

Alibaba Offers Bitcoin Rewards Through Lolli Shopping App for ‘Singles Day’

Lolli’s in-browser app allows users to shop through merchants’ websites as they normally would, but earn small bitcoin rewards delivered to the in-browser wallet.

Lolli, an affiliate retail startup that gives online shoppers bitcoin instead of regular cash-back perks, just announced its first Asian partnership with Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba.

CoinDesk reached out to Alibaba for comment and will update the article if we hear back.

This announcement comes on Singles Day, the Nov. 11 Chinese shopping holiday comparable to the U.S.’s Black Friday. Alibaba Group’s online Singles Day sales have reportedly generated more than $23 billion so far this year.

However, Lolli’s head of communications, Aubrey Strobel, told CoinDesk that Lolli perks will only be available to purchases made in the U.S. For Chinese-Americans, foreign students or travelers, this new option could add additional perks if they participate in online holiday sales, but residents in China will be unable to participate.

“Its products would be shipped from China to U.S. users”, Strobel said.

Lolli CEO Alex Adelman referred to this partnership as a milestone for the startup, which plans to expand internationally in 2020.

“This partnership is a great first step to connect the two largest economies, China and the US, through bitcoin and commerce”, he told CoinDesk. “The opportunity is available for US users only for now but we plan to expand internationally soon, letting everyone in the world easily earn and own bitcoin.”

Stepping back, several cash-back crypto startups are gearing up for the holiday shopping season. There are now several bitcoin retail apps, including competitors like Fold, Pei and SPEDN, targeting customers over the 2019 holiday shopping season, offering more bitcoin options than in previous years.

Bitcoin News Summary – May 20, 2019

Crypto markets this week reached their highest level since August of 2018. Markets then corrected downwards, however, sentiment is still bullish, with major news networks covering the resurgence of crypto.

Bitcoin, Ethereum, BCH, and Gemini exchange’s US Dollar-based stablecoin can now be used to purchase goods from Starbucks, Whole Foods, Nordstrom and many more retailers. The US-based payments service, Flexa in collaboration with Gemini confirmed that their new crypto app, Spedn, will enable instant crypto payments in participating stores.

It was reported that BitOasis exchange, which is based in the United Arab Emirates, received a preliminary license to operate. If a full license is granted, BitOasis would be the first officially approved and regulated exchange in the region to offer crypto trading and storage.

San Francisco Open Exchange, or SFOX, has partnered with M.Y. Safra Bank, to bring Federal deposit insurance to the Bitcoin trading space. The move represents the first time that crypto traders will have their funds guaranteed by the state, up to $250,000. This is another strong signal for the increasing integration of crypto into mainstream finance.

New Zealand’s Cryptopia exchange was hacked in January of this year. The exchange went offline this week, displaying only a message that a firm has been appointed to handle liquidation proceedings. Most users have been unable to withdraw funds from Cryptopia since the breach occurred.

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