STORY: Bitcoin’s soaring value has caught the attention of high-end fashion brands and retailers.

It’s prompting moves to offer cryptocurrencies as a means of payment.

That would help tap in to fresh pockets of wealth and build loyalty with crypto investors.

Until recently, only a handful of luxury brands including LVMH, Gucci and Balenciaga have experimented with crypto payment offers.

But in recent weeks, upscale French luxury department store Printemps announced it was teaming up with the world’s largest crypto exchange, Binance, and French financial tech company Lyzi to accept cryptocurrencies.

It will include bitcoin and ethereum in its stores in France.

And will become the first European department store to do so.

Luxury lighter and pen maker S.T. Dupont told Reuters it aims to accept cryptocurrency payments in two Paris stores before the holidays.

And cruise company Virgin Voyages began this month offering its first product accepting bitcoin as a payment option.

It’s for a $120,000 annual pass for up to a year of sailing on its cruise ships.

Regulators have long warned that cryptocurrencies like bitcoin are high-risk assets, with limited uses in the real world.

High volatility has been another barrier to wide adoption as a means of payment.

But support from U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, who is expected to bring in more friendly e-currency regulation, have fueled record-breaking rises for bitcoin.

It topped $107,000 earlier this week.

S&P analysts say the narrative is starting to shift.

It’s noting that blockchain innovation in financial markets could increase predictability for cryptocurrencies.

Luxury labels have long sought to cater to affluent shoppers from the tech industry.

It comes as the luxury industry faces its biggest slump in years.

And searches for new sources of growth.