Pick n Pay will begin accepting cryptocurrency payments soon

Following the announcement by the FSCA that cryptocurrency will now be treated as a financial product in South Africa.

Pick n Pay, one of South Africa’s largest grocery retailers, announced on Tuesday that it is expanding a pilot programme to add cryptocurrency as a payment option to more stores following the successful completion of the first phase.

The announcement came just weeks after South Africa’s Financial Sector Conduct Authority formally declared crypto assets to be financial products, allowing them to be regulated and paving the way for cryptocurrency to become a mainstream payment method.

“Increasingly cryptocurrency is being used by those under-served by traditional banking systems, or by those wanting to pay and exchange money in a cheaper and really convenient way. Many companies are responding to this by accepting Bitcoin,” Pick n Pay said in a statement.

Pick n Pay stated, over the past five months, the retailer conducted the first phase of the pilot in ten Western Cape province stores with pre-selected testers. The retail has now extended it to a further 29 stores for customer testing, with the intention of rolling it out to all stores in the coming months.

Pick n Pay has partnered on its latest pilot with Electrum and CryptoConvert. According to the company, Electrum’s payment platform connects CryptoConvert and Pick n Pay, allowing customers to pay with Bitcoin Lightning technology at the till point.

Carel van Wyk, Founder of CryptoConvert, said, “Crypto payments are still in their infancy in South Africa, but we are already seeing adoption in parts of our society that haven’t previously had access to traditional financial systems,” which allows merchants to accept crypto payments.