New App Incentivizes Millennials to Save By Rewarding Them With Crypto
*By Bridgette Webb*
Savings app Long Game is giving consumers a new incentive to save cash: cryptocurrency.
"It's a fun way to start getting educated about the markets and see where it's going," CEO Lindsay Holden said Thursday in an interview on Cheddar.
Launched in 2017, Long Game uses games and rewards to improve millennials' financial habits by leveraging mobile gaming and lotteries. Instead of a flat interest rate like most savings accounts, users are rewarded with coins for saving and keeping their balances up.
"We hope it will encourage savings and build the financial foundation that you need," Holden said of the feature that launched Thursday.
The app's [new](https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/long-game-launches-crypto-rewards-becoming-the-first-personal-finance-app-to-give-consumers-no-risk-access-to-crypto-markets-300699779.html) cypto feature will reward users who meet savings goals with Ether, other forms of cyrpto, and special game coins. Those winnings can be applied to games of chance for prizes of up to $1 million.
The new feature arrives as saving rates in the U.S. have taken a dive. A reported [40 percent](https://money.cnn.com/2018/05/22/pf/emergency-expenses-household-finances/index.html) of Americans are unable to cover a $400 emergency expense. Over a quarter of millennials and Gen Xers have nothing in the bank for an emergency, and many don't even consider saving for retirement.
It's a reality that Holden says is destructive for Long Game's target base. But she's optimistic her app can effectively change millennial habits ー mostly because it's fun to use.
"We are saddled with student debt, and more importantly the tools out there aren't working for us today," she said.
"What Long Game is trying to do is build something that works for our millennial audience, that has fun rewards like cryptocurrency, and we will continue to stay current and offer new rewards that are compelling," she said.
For more on this story, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/long-game-launches-crypto-rewards).
Amid a backdrop of ongoing tariff uncertainty, more and more gamers are facing price hikes. Microsoft raised recommended retailer pricing for its Xbox consoles and controllers around the world this week. Its Xbox Series S, for example, now starts at $379.99 in the U.S. — up $80 from the $299.99 price tag that debuted in 2020. And its more powerful Xbox Series X will be $599.99 going forward, a $100 jump from its previous $499.99 listing. The tech giant didn’t mention tariffs specifically, but cited wider “market conditions and the rising cost of development.” Beyond the U.S., Microsoft also laid out Xbox price adjustments for Europe, the U.K. and Australia. The company said all other countries would also receive updates locally.
Apple CEO Tim Cook said Thursday that the majority of iPhones sold in the U.S. in the current fiscal quarter will be sourced from India, while iPads and other devices will come from Vietnam as the company works to avoid the impact of President Trump’s tariffs on its business. Apple’s earnings for the first three months of the year topped Wall Street’s expectations thanks to high demand for its iPhones, and the company said tariffs had a limited effect on the fiscal second quarter’s results. Cook added that for the current quarter, assuming things don’t change, Apple expects to see $900 million added to its costs as a result of the tariffs.
Visa is hoping to hand your credit card to an artificial intelligence “agent” that can find and buy clothes, groceries, airplane tickets and other items on your behalf.
Shares of Deliveroo, the food delivery service based in London, are hitting three-year highs on Monday after it received a $3.6 billion proposed takeover offer from DoorDash.
X, the social media platform owned by Trump adviser Elon Musk, is challenging the constitutionality of a Minnesota ban on using deepfakes to influence elections and harm candidates.
The State Bar of California has disclosed that some multiple-choice questions in a problem-plagued bar exam were developed with the aid of artificial intelligence.