Croatia’s largest supermarket chain Konzum has announced that it is accepting cryptocurrency payments.
It has been reported that it now accepts nine cryptocurrencies for payment in its online store, allowing customers to use crypto to buy groceries, hygiene products, and household supplies.
However, the supported cryptocurrencies include Bitcoin, Ether (ETH), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), EOS (EOS), Dai (DAI), Ripple (XRP), Stellar (XLM), as well as stablecoins like Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC). To enable the new crypto payment option, Konzum partnered with a local crypto payment processor, Electrocoin, to implement PayCek, a system that allows merchants to accept cryptocurrency payments.
The report said that taking into account the high volatility of crypto prices, the PayCek system guarantees buyers a fixed exchange rate at the start of the transaction, providing enough time for successful execution.
A spokesperson at Konzum said:
"When it comes to crypto payment, Konzum doesn't have any interaction with cryptocurrencies, we receive only FIAT into our bank account. Electrocoin does the payment processing from crypto to FIAT through their cryptocurrency exchange platform in a simple and secure way."
Likewise, the representative said that Electrocoin plans to activate three more cryptocurrencies into PayCek by the end of the year, which would enable Konzum to also support payments in Solana (SOL), Litecoin (LTC), and Dogecoin (DOGE). While Konzum only accepts crypto online at the moment, it plans to expand the payment option across its supermarket chain in the near future. The retailer runs over 700 stores in Croatia and has more than 10,000 employees.
The spokesperson added:
"Payments in physical stores are planned to be available shortly."
According to Konzum board member Uroš Kalinić, the introduction of crypto payments shows the company’s commitment to global trends and innovations in the retail sector.
Thus, he said:
"As the largest retail chain in Croatia, which in its history of almost 65 years is a continuous leader in the domestic market in terms of business results and technological achievements, we are proud to be leaders in another area that is rapidly developing and forming the future."
Source: Cointelegraph