Crypto holders in Austria will soon be able to spend their coins at more than 2,500 points of acceptance using A1 Payment — one of the largest mobile network operators in the country.
According to an announcement made by Austrian fintech firm Salamantex, its Crypto Payment Service Software is now integrated into the A1 Payment platform. Merchants will start accepting Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) or Dash, instead of cash or credit cards, in summer 2020.
Austria’s current stance towards crypto
Salamantex also praised the country’s recent stance towards switching to cashless payment transactions “as far as possible.”
Markus Pejacsevich, the chief operating officer of Salamantex, said:
“Our goal is to make paying with digital currencies at the checkout as easy and natural as we have been used to with credit cards for decades. With A1, we have a partner for the Austria-wide roll-out who, just like us, is convinced of this payment system of the future and works towards making payment with digital assets accessible to the broad masses.”
Regulated by the Financial Market Authority
Salamantex’s Crypto Payment Service Software aims to enable a rollout of the crypto payment service in neighboring countries as well.
In 2019, A1 started accepting cryptocurrencies as payment in seven selected shops in Austria. This enabled A1 customers to pay for services using the Chinese payment operators, Alipay and WeChatPay.