Landry’s Restaurants, Inc. announced Tuesday a partnership with cryptocurrency startup NYDIG that will allow diners to earn $ 25 in Bitcoin for every $ 250 spent at the hospitality conglomerate’s restaurants.
Landry’s will also begin to maintain a portion of its corporate treasury reserves in Bitcoin under the care of NYDIG. The company is known for operating dozens of franchise entities, including Morton’s, Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, the Rainforest Cafe and the Palm. Landry’s is owned by the billionaire television personality Tillman Fertita, who also acts as CEO of the company.
Landry’s Chief Digital Asset Strategy Officer, Trey Zeluff, said in a statement:
“We consider bitcoin to be a good option for a portion of our own treasury, so we want to offer that option to our customers as well. We are proud to pioneer this concept for the hospitality industry in collaboration with NYDIG.”
Landry’s showed the first signs of interest in the cryptocurrency space earlier this year when it began accepting Bitcoin payments at many of its restaurants back in April. At the time, the CEO of the company said: “It’s amazing how simple the transaction is [en criptomonedas], and it’s here to stay. This is where it is, and this is bound to happen. “
Fertita’s interest in cryptocurrency seems to have also extended to other facets of his professional life, as his NBA franchise has also made headlines in the sector in recent months. As early as June 2021, Tillman also announced that it would begin validating blocks for Akash Network, noting that it was time to “begin researching block mining or validation as the next logical step in our digital asset strategy.”
NYDIG has also become an active player in the blockchain space, raising hundreds of millions of dollars in 2021 to create Bitcoin-centric solutions for the insurance, banking, and clean energy industries. Earlier this month, Cointelegraph also reported that the company had acquired Bitcoin micropayments firm Bottlepay in hopes of “unlocking the financial infrastructure of the future.”
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