As crazy as 2021 has been, probably the last thing that anyone expected was to walk into a fast-food joint and walk out with some extra cryptocurrency.
When a member of Burger King’s free loyalty rewards program, Royal Perks, places an order of at least $5 at the chain, they will receive an email containing a code for a free coin to be redeemed on the Robinhood trading app.
The bad news is that the odds of that free crypto being anything other than a dogecoin are 1 in 9,091.
Obviously, the breakdown was going to favor Dogecoin — those tokens are changing hands for about a quarter apiece these days — and not Bitcoin, which is teetering around $60,000, or Ethereum which is going for about $4,200.
And Royal Perks members already score deals on the app, so they’re getting that free crypto token on top of what’s probably already a discounted meal.
Even if it is the one footing the bill for the prizes — and it’s not quite clear which of the two companies is paying for the “side of crypto” — the trading platform will get an influx of new customers visiting it at a pivotal time.
With Robinhood ready to step up its game by expanding into crypto wallets and other financial products, it could use an infusion of new accounts — and the ones this promotion produces will likely be cheaper to acquire than those derived from its more conventional advertising and referral leads.