International grocery chain Spar pilots Bitcoin payments in Switzerland

Spar, an international grocery chain, has begun accepting Bitcoin in a Swiss store, potentially paving the way for wider crypto adoption across its global retail network.

In its April 17 LinkedIn post , DFX Swiss, a company which offers crypto-to-cash solutions, announced that the Spar location in the Swedish city of Zug has officially gone live on BTC Map — a platform tracking businesses worldwide that accept Bitcoin ( BTC ). DFX Swiss has enabled this payment system using a new tool called OpenCryptoPay.

“This SPAR location is among the first supermarkets in Switzerland where you can pay directly at the checkout using Bitcoin (via LNURL), thanks to our new #OpenCryptoPay solution – an open P2P standard for in-person crypto payments,” the company wrote.

Customers can pay with BTC via the Lightning Network , which involves scaning a QR code at checkout. In a LinkedIn post, Rahim Taghizadegan, director of the Bitcoin Association Switzerland, shared a video demonstrating just how simple it is to pay with BTC at Spar.

If the pilot in Zug proves successful, Spar could expand Bitcoin payments across Switzerland — or potentially roll it out globally. That would mark a huge milestone for crypto adoption , given Spar’s massive footprint of over 13,900 stores in 48 countries, serving 14.7 million daily shoppers and employing 450K people worldwide.

In accepting BTC at its stores, Spar joins a series of other supermarket and retail chains around the world that have experimented with or successfully adopted Bitcoin payments.

In the Netherlands, a Spar location in Arnhem began accepting BTC back in 2014 as part of the “Bitcoincity” initiative.

In April 2023, Pick n Pay, one of South Africa’s largest supermarket chains, made headlines by rolling out BTC payments across all 1,600+ of its stores after a successful pilot program. Customers can pay using the Lightning Network, similar to Spar’s implementation in Zug, with shoppers reportedly spending over $50K in BTC monthly.

Major U.S. chains like Whole Foods and Starbucks have also dabbled in crypto payments through third-party apps like Spedn, which convert crypto to fiat at checkout.