The crypto climate in South Africa has been getting increasingly warmer in recent months. In a new development, Pick n Pay, which bills itself as the largest supermarket chain in the country, is preparing to open Bitcoin payments from 39 stores across the country. The move, however, was not unexpected. Pick n Pay had been testing crypto payment for a while before making sure that the large-scale rollout of this feature would go in the right and profitable direction.
Once implemented, cryptocurrency holders will be able to scan a Pick n Buy QR code and accept the conversion rate at checkout. Customers will also be able to use currently unnamed ‘trusted apps’ to make crypto payments at the supermarket.
During its tests, Pick n Pay had chosen Electrum and CryptoConvert to allow testers to pay through bitcoin’s Lightning network, Cointelegraph reported. The lightning protocol speeds up transactions on the Bitcoin network.
Essentially, this is Pick n Pay’s crypto payment testing extension.
According to South African news outlet Tech Central, the crypto payments feature will be rolled out more widely in the coming months.
This development reiterates the exponential growth of cryptocurrencies in South Africa.
The crypto market in Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, and South Africa together saw 1,200 percent growth, reaching a market valuation of $105.6 billion (approximately Rs. 775 crore) in a year, according to a Chainalysis report in September 2019. last year.
On Oct. 19, the South African Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) classified cryptocurrency assets as financial products.
According to Reuters, the country has planned to regulate the growing fintech sector by licensing cryptocurrency trading firms and altering currency exchange controls to monitor cross-border crypto transactions.
