High-end Italian fashion giant Gucci has become the first major brand to accept payments in the form of the Bored Ape Yacht Club-affiliated ApeCoin (APE).

The move was announced on Monday and could provide the ApeCoin project with significant mainstream exposure along with bringing further utility to the cryptocurrency.

Gucci customers in the United States will now be able to purchase items in-store with APE, while the payment infrastructure will be provided by BitPay, a firm that has helped big names such as AMC Theaters accept crypto payments in the past.

Excited to announce that @Gucci will become the first major brand to allow customers to pay for purchases in-store with ApeCoin, via @BitPay. https://t.co/ipoeW6lXLl

— ApeCoin (@apecoin) August 2, 2022

Despite the ongoing crypto bear market, the fashion brand has taken a serious plunge into the crypto sector this year.

In February, Gucci kicked things off with the “SUPERGUCCI” NFT collection in collaboration with vinyl toy brand SUPERPLASTIC. The following month, Gucci rolled out the “Gucci Grail” NFT collection targeted toward owners of top NFT projects such as the BAYC.

In May, the firm then went on to announce plans to accept 12 crypto assets as payment methods across 111 stores in North America. The list included Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Ether (ETH), Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC), Litecoin (LTC), Shiba Inu (SHIB), Dogecoin (DOGE), and five U.S. dollar stablecoins.

BAYC collectors seem to have shown strong support for Gucci’s crypto moves so far, with pseudonymous Twitter personality NBATopShotEast claiming to be the first person to pay for Gucci items in ETH at the brand's Wooster Street location in New York City in July. Another two BAYC members claimed to be the second and third people to do so.

In response to the latest APE announcement, NBATopShotEast outlined plans to once again be the first person to use the asset in the Wooster Gucci store.

Lucky to be Guccis first ever in store crypto user... hope to be the first in store Apecoin user too https://t.co/mNdG9oSJPi

— NBA Top Shot East Coast Podcast (@NBATopShotEast) August 2, 2022

The Apecoin community

APE was launched following much anticipation earlier this year in March. Its accompanying decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) and governance community has since remained highly engaged and has overseen important decisions such as the vetoing of a proposal to port APE from Ethereum to a new blockchain in June.

Last month, the DAO voted in favor of several notable proposals, such as studying the feasibility of hosting an NFT conference and festival and providing APE funding for the Bored Ape Gazette to become a 24-hour news site. Additionally, the project is working on rolling out APE staking in response to a strong push from the community.

ApeCoin fam - we hear you on staking. It’s important and something we want to get right. We’re currently finalizing details that will serve as the basis for a wider update on our progress in line with AIPs-21&22. Expect more frequent updates and collaboration soon. pic.twitter.com/jKi8fZuaqd

— ApeCoin (@apecoin) July 22, 2022

At the time of writing, APE is priced at $6.74 after pumping 11.4% over the past seven days. APE has shown a strong resurgence of late, due in part to positive developments in the affiliated Otherside metaverse project, with the price increasing by 49.1% over the past month.

Related: Tiffany & Co turning CryptoPunk NFTs into $50K custom pendants

Its current market cap of roughly $2.06 billion makes APE the 33rd largest asset in crypto. However, APE is still down 74.8% from its all-time high of $26.70 on April 28.