Swiss online retailer Digitec Galaxus has announced that its platform has started accepting cryptocurrencies as payment.
According to the official announcement made on March 19, the retail giant will accept an array of digital currencies - Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Bitcoin SV (BSV), Ethereum (ETH), Ripple (XRP), Binance Coin (BNB), Litecoin (LTC), Tron (TRX), NEO (NEO) and OmiseGO (OMG). However, the store has set the minimum purchase limit for crypto acceptance at CNF 200 (around $200).
Digitec Galaxus is one of the largest online retail stores in Switzerland and lists products ranging from wheat beer to gaming PCs.
To introduce the crypto payment method, the retailer partnered with Swiss payment processor Datatrans and Danish crypto Payments startup Coinify.
Customers willing to pay in crypto will get a 15-minute window to pay while checking out and the value of the digital coins will not fluctuate for that period. There is also a 1.5 percent processing charge for crypto payments.
Not Fully Convinced with Crypto
Answering a question about the willingness to pay in crypto, Oliver Herren, the company’s chief innovation officer, said: “Maybe you have some and want to make use of it. Perhaps you can’t turn it into real money because your bank won’t accept it. Or maybe just because you can? Perhaps you simply enjoy trying new things.”
However, Herren is uncertain about the future of digital currencies and is not “not fully convinced of the advantages Blockchain ” over other database technologies. He pointed out the scalability issues of the blockchains and that he believes that improvements in the network are slowed down by decentralization.
“But maybe I just haven’t invested enough time in fully understanding how the blockchain ecosystem works,” he clarified.
The Swiss store has further introduced a section dedicated to different crypto wallets.
Digitec Galaxus’ push for crypto is not the first in the retail industry as many big and small players in the sectors across the globe including Overstock and Microsoft introduced crypto payment options over the last few years.
