Payments in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC) have surged at Croatia’s largest supermarket chain, Konzum, this year despite the ongoing bear market.
After debuting with crypto payments in 2021, Konzum has seen a growing trend for these types of payments, said the firm’s director of business applications, Ines Barbir, to Cointelegraph.
Konzum officially began accepting cryptocurrencies as payment for its products in December 2021, allowing customers to pay online with nine cryptocurrencies such as BTC and Ether (ETH), as well as stablecoins Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC).
Since then, the supermarket chain has extended the cryptocurrency payment option to several self-purchase checkouts in pilot physical stores. Konzum also continues to work with local cryptocurrency payment company Electrocoin to bring cryptocurrency payments to all 700 brick-and-mortar stores in Croatia.
According to Barbir, the rollout of the new payment method has been carried out successfully, and Konzum has been actively working on expanding its crypto payment option. The executive did not specify the exact figures for payment volume growth since the debut of cryptocurrency payments.
A company spokesperson noted that the rise of cryptocurrency payments on Konzum is in line with the growing adoption of cryptocurrencies in Croatia:
“Regardless of the bear market, we are pleased with the interest that continues to grow. The general interest in cryptocurrency payments continues to increase steadily, as well as the interest in the implementation of cryptocurrency payments in Croatia.”
The representative noted that Croatia is “leading the way in the European Union” when it comes to the level of adoption of cryptocurrencies. That is “in part thanks to the rise of fintech companies like our Electrocoin partners,” added the spokesman.
The representative still mentioned some uncertainty around crypto payments, stating, “The reason is mainly insecurity and mistrust of new technologies, but also the state of regulation of the cryptocurrency industry.”
The Croatian government has been somewhat silent on crypto regulation in recent years, while local crypto advocates have been working towards self-regulation. In 2018, the Croatian National Bank emphasized that cryptocurrencies were not legal tender in the country, nor were they recognized as foreign currency or payment instruments.
Despite some level of apparent uncertainty around crypto, Croatia has emerged as one of the most crypto-ready countries in the world. According to a report by educational platform Forex Suggest, Croatia has a score of 6.2 out of 10 when it comes to cryptocurrency readiness, along with countries like the United Arab Emirates, Georgia, and Romania.
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