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RadioShack is getting into the crypto business

The tech retail chain might be the place to go to trade cryptocurrency.

Oscar Gonzalez Former staff reporter
Oscar Gonzalez is a Texas native who covered video games, conspiracy theories, misinformation and cryptocurrency.
Expertise Video Games, Misinformation, Conspiracy Theories, Cryptocurrency, NFTs, Movies, TV, Economy, Stocks
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Oscar Gonzalez
Does this old dog have one more trick left

Does this old dog have one more trick left?

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RadioShack, the longtime tech retail chain, plans on selling a new item: cryptocurrency . The company says it's "bringing cryptocurrency to the mainstream." 

RadioShack DeFi (short for decentralized finance) is the new venture for the retail chain as laid out on its website as of Sunday. This means it'll allow users to trade tokens among each other rather than at an exchange like Coinbase and Binance. 

"RadioShack, and RadioShack alone, can bridge the gap and 'cross the chasm' of mainstream usage for cryptocurrency," the company says on its site.  

This might be a bit confusing for those who were familiar with the longtime chain, but here's an explanation of what's happening. RadioShack DeFi, once it's open, will let users who sign up will have the option to trade their crypto tokens with each other without having an entity handling all the transactions. This is done via smart contracts on the ethereum blockchain. Examples of this kind of protocol similar to RadioShack DeFi are Uniswap and SushiSwap. 

RadioShack didn't provide a date of when it will open up its exchange, but there's a waitlist for those interested can join. Users will need to link their digital wallets to RadioShack DeFi in order to start trading. 

There are currently more than 400 RadioShack stores in the US. The chain was purchased in 2020 by Retail Commerce Ventures, a holding company that is also behind the Atlas USV DeFi Protocol, which will be used for the RadioShack DeFi.