A well-established discount store in the United Arab Emirates called Day To Day Hypermarket is allowing customers to pay in bitcoin and crypto.
The discount store will accept bitcoin and crypto payments in-store using its POS systems as well as online through its website.
Day to Day Hyperstore operates several branches throughout the UAE. Five of the branches already accept bitcoin and crypto payments, namely the Baniyas Square, Al Safa Sharjah, Al Quoz and Ajman Branches.
According to reports by the Khaleej Times, Day to Day Hyperstore is the first store of its kind to accept bitcoin or crypto as a form of payment in the UAE.
The company posted this on Twitter today:
According to the news article quoted earlier, Day to Day Hyperstore set a benchmark for other retailers in the UAE. This means that other discount stores in the UAE might follow suit and accept payments in bitcoin and crypto to remain competitive in terms of offering a multitude of payment options to customers.
The UAE has positioned itself as a bitcoin and crypto-friendly region. Many restaurants, nightclubs and hotels already accept bitcoin and crypto as payments. Citizens can use bitcoin, Ethereum and Tether to pay for government licenses and visas.
FTX was the first exchange to get license to to operate within the country and CZ, the CEO of Binance, moved from Singapore to Dubai and set up a small regional Binance headquarters.
Several bitcoin and crypto “influencers” live in Dubai, including MMCrypto and Carl “The Moon” Runefelt among others.
Given that the UAE is already very bitcoin and crypto friendly, Day to Day Hyperstore accepting bitcoin and crypto doesn’t seem like huge news. Just recently, “Bitcoin Valley” in Honduras and Binance and MasterCard launching their bitcoin prepaid card in Argentina made headlines.
Despite the bear market, bitcoin adoption doesn’t seem to be slowing down. In 2017, some companies announced they were entering the space but pulled out during the 2018 bear market. This time around companies seem more serious about continuing to build and adopt bitcoin.
