Crypto Payments comes to 6000 Stores.

Two major Korean companies aim at bringing cryptocurrencies to outlets by the first half of the year. The partnership between Bithumb which is a Major South Korean cryptocurrency exchange and Pay’s which is a mobile payment service provider aims at bringing cryptocurrencies to about 6,000 outlets with planned expansion to 8,000 by the end of the year.
One of the agendas of the partnership is to fuel the adoption and use of cryptocurrency payments in wider stream society. The partnership which was officially announced on Monday, a Bithumb official had this to say
“We have taken a landmark step. We will try hard to set up an environment in which cryptocurrencies are used extensively”
Bithumb’s marked push to propel cryptocurrency payments follows news of South Korean internet giant Kakao Corp, the operator of a subsidiary that runs major crypto exchange UpBit, reportedly integrating cryptocurrency payments for 12,000 merchants and millions of users across its platforms that include KakaoTalk, KakaoPay, KakaoStory, and KakaoTaxi, among others.
Bithumb has also partnered South Korea’s largest hotel booking platform in recent weeks to integrate cryptocurrency payments. The exchange explained that barcodes will be created in mobile apps, allowing customers to make payments at cafes and restaurants using their cryptocurrencies held at the exchange.
The effort to foster a cryptocurrency payments ecosystem is reminiscent of similar moves in Japan wherein a number of retailers have begun accepting cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. In Australia, a similar partnership between a domestic crypto exchange and a payments provider has seen 1,200 newsstands across the country now equipped to sell bitcoin and ethereum to everyday citizens.