Boxed teams up with Lolli for bitcoin rewards

Online bulk-products retailer Boxed.com has partnered with rewards app Lolli to give customers bitcoin cash back for their purchases.

New York-based Lolli Inc. said Thursday that Boxed shoppers can now use its app to earn up to 5% back in bitcoin digital currency on their everyday orders, such as paper towels, snacks and cleaning supplies. Also headquartered in New York, Boxed provides warehouse club-style shopping — including groceries, pantry items, household staples, health and beauty aids, office supplies, and a variety of organic and green products — in a digital setting and without membership fees.

“Boxed is very excited to align with a great partner in Lolli,” Alison Weick, chief marketing officer at Boxed, said in a statement. “This will enhance our customers’ shopping experience as they redeem cash or bitcoin when shopping for their bulk groceries and household essentials.”

Among the grocery retailers offering Lolli bitcoin rewards are Walmart, The Kroger Co., Albertsons Cos. and Ahold Delhaize USA.

Founded in 2018 by Matt Senter and Alex Adelman, Lolli provides a free, downloadable app — compatible with leading web browsers and mobile device platforms — to collect free bitcoin rewards on daily purchases. The company offers up to 30% bitcoin-back rewards, with an average of 7%, at more than 1,000 top retailers and Fortune 500 companies like Kroger, Walmart, Microsoft, Booking.com and Ulta. To date, Lolli users have earned more than $3 million in bitcoin rewards.

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“We’re excited about this partnership, which will allow shoppers to invest in bitcoin for free when they stock up on everyday essentials at Boxed,” stated Adelman, CEO and co-founder of Lolli. “For consumers with an interest in both earning bitcoin and convenient online shopping, Lolli and Boxed are the perfect way to circumvent shopping with Amazon and give money to individual companies, while getting a significant amount of free money back in bitcoin, the best-performing asset class of the last 10 years.”

Other retail brands in the food and grocery arena offering Lolli bitcoin-back rewards include Acme, Albertsons, Food Lion, Giant, Jewel-Osco, Pavilions, Randalls, Safeway, Sam’s Club, Shaw’s, Star Market, Stop & Shop, Tom Thumb, Vons and meal-kit provider HelloFresh.

Lolli noted that its platform also offers an on-ramp for consumers to become bitcoin investors simply by shopping online. Its app is now used by more than 250,000 shoppers.

Widely considered the first cryptocurrency, bitcoin is essentially a digital file stored in an e-wallet app on a computer or mobile device. Users can send bitcoin value to each other’s digital wallets, and transactions are recorded in a public blockchain list. Lolli noted that interest in bitcoin an as investment and alternative currency has soared since 2020, and the virtual currency recently topped $60,000 (U.S.) in value. As of May 6, one bitcoin equaled $55,970.50.

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Lolli added that it recently announced a $5.3 million Pre-Series A financing round led by Seven Seven Six, the venture capital fund led by Alexis Ohanian, and a “star-studded” group of investors including Night Media, Serena Williams’ Serena Ventures and prominent YouTube creators.