Swiss online retail giant Digitec now accepting Bitcoin SV, other cryptos

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Swiss online retail giant Digitec Galaxus has enabled cryptocurrency payments through its platforms, including Bitcoin SV (BSV).

The retailer, which owns Switzerland’s most prominent online store, digitec.ch, announced the decision on Tuesday. Customers will now be able to pay for transactions over CHF200 (approximately $200) in cryptocurrency like BSV, in addition to the range of other payment methods supported by the retailer.

The decision comes in response to growing customer demand for crypto payment options, and will enable consumers in Switzerland to purchase everything from “shoehorns to wheat beer to gaming PCs” with Bitcoin. Other accepted cryptos include Bitcoin Core (BTC), Bitcoin Cash ABC (BCHABC), Ethereum (ETH), Ripple (XRP), Binance Coin (BNB), Litecoin (LTC), TRON, NEO, and OmiseGO.

The new payments facility was developed in partnership with Swiss payments firm Datatrans and crypto payments company Coinify. Customers are provided with a 15-minute timeframe after checkout to complete payment, with fees of just 1.5% charged for transactions through the facility.

As part of the move, Digitec has also incorporated a crypto wallet into its platforms, which will allow customers to keep track of the transactions and available balances.

Despite the vote of confidence in Bitcoin, Chief Innovation Officer at Digitec Oliver Herren said he doesn’t yet appreciate the transformative power of blockchain technology, admitting he may not fully understand the technology.

In a blog post, Herren noted, “…maybe I just haven’t invested enough time in fully understanding how the blockchain ecosystem works.”

Nevertheless, in response to strong demand from its customers, the $261-million revenue retailer confirmed crypto support would be effective immediately.

The onboarding is the latest example of a retailer announcing support for BSV. With fast processing times and low transactions costs, BSV is perfectly suited to consumer payments, as intended in the original bitcoin whitepaper.

Other retailers have taken similar steps towards onboarding crypto payments, including Overstock, while Rakuten and Canadian platform Bunz Trading Zone have gone a stage further in introducing their own platform-specific tokens.

It comes at a time of increasing adoption of cryptocurrencies like BSV among consumers globally, as digital currency continues to challenges card and cash payments as a more efficient, cost-effective payment method.

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