Suresh Kumar stated that cryptocurrency will become an important payment method in the metaverse and social media, as these platforms will be a key way for customers to find new products.

Suresh Kumar, Walmart’s global chief technology officer (CTO), believes cryptocurrencies will be a “significant” area of disruption in the future, particularly in how customers pay for virtual and physical things.

On Oct. 17, Kumar discussed Walmart’s positive attitude toward digital assets, stating that “crypto will become an integral component of how customers transact” for both physical and virtual commodities.

“I think that there are three major areas of disruption. Crypto falls in sort of the middle of it,” he said, explaining that “the way in which customers are getting inspired and discovering products” is changing.

“When you specifically talk about crypto, it is going to be about discovery of products, whether it is physical or virtual inside, either the Metaverse or upfront, and then how people transact.”

This could explain Walmart’s recent entry into the Roblox Metaverse, with the debut of Walmart Land in late September. The company hosts a variety of virtual experiences there, including games, a DJ booth, and a Ferris wheel, as well as virtual goods products dubbed “verch” for users’ avatars.

Although NFTs and crypto are not currently connected with the Roblox metaverse, Walmart has previously hinted in patent papers from January that it may look to build digital currencies, tokens, and NFTs in the Metaverse domain in the future.

For some time, the international retail behemoth has been supposed to be working on implementing crypto payment support, but so far only false alarms have surfaced, such as the bogus deal with Litecoin disclosed via a questionable press release in September last year.

As of October 2021, there were approximately 200 Bitcoin (BTC) ATMs placed in Walmart shops across the United States, with the intention of increasing that number to 8,000 at a later date.