Croatian retail giant sees rise in crypto payments despite the bear market
Payments in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) have been on the rise at Croatia’s largest supermarket chain Konzum this year despite the ongoing bear market.
After debuting crypto payments in 2021, Konzum has seen an increasing trend for this type of payment, the firm’s director of business applications Ines Barbir told Cointelegraph.
Konzum officially started accepting cryptocurrencies as payment for its products in December 2021, allowing customers to pay online with nine cryptocurrencies like BTC and Ether (ETH) as well as Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC) stablecoins.
The supermarket chain has since expanded the crypto payment option to several self-checkout cash registers in physical pilot stores. Konzum is also still working with the local crypto payment firm Electrocoin to bring crypto payments to all 700 physical stores across Croatia.
According to Barbir, the rollout of the new payment method has been implemented successfully, and Konzum has actively been working on expanding its crypto payment option. The executive didn’t specify the exact numbers of payments’ volume growth since debuting crypto payments.
A spokesperson for the firm pointed out that rising crypto payments on Konzum come in line with the growing adoption of crypto in Croatia, stating:
The representative noted that Croatia is “at the top in the European Union” when it comes to the level of crypto adoption. That is “partly thanks to the rise of fintech companies like our partners at Electrocoin,” the spokesperson added.
The representative still mentioned some uncertainty around crypto payments, stating: “The reason for this is mainly due to the insecurity and suspicion in new technologies, but also due to the state of regulation of the crypto
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