The chain of Spar supermarkets in Switzerland have selected Cardano blockchain’s ADA token as a payments option. Cardano has Swiss roots with its headquarters situated in Zug. The development will push the ADA token into mainstream adoption and usage in Switzerland, that is taking measures to establish itself as a pro-crypto hub to match pace with regions like the U.S., the EU, and the UAE.
Cardano said this is the first time that its ADA token is being fitted into a concrete retail ecosystem.
“When blockchain becomes invisible infrastructure – when paying with ADA is as natural as using a card – we’ve moved beyond the experimental phase into genuine financial transformation,” said Frederik Gregaard, CEO of the Cardano Foundation, commenting on the development.
The Open Crypto Pay infrastructure developed by digital assets infrastructure provider DFX.swiff will be used to process ADA-based payments across 137 Spar stores in Switzerland.
This will eliminate the role of centralized exchanges in facilitating these transactions and bridge gaps between DeFi and the traditional fiat savings.
“With Open Crypto Pay, we demonstrate that Cardano is not only technologically advanced, but also delivers real value in daily payments – for both consumers and merchants,” said Cyrill Thommen, CEO of DFX.swiss.
Swiss fintech firm Brick Towers has also been onboarded to process the transactions through its urble app.
The test phase of these payments at Spar had begun last year in August. The complete rollout, however, has now begun.