- Binance and French giant Ingenico team up to enable in-store crypto payments in France and increase cryptocurrency adoption worldwide.
- Le Carlie and Miss Opéra, French traders, are the two participants in the live pilot testing.
- The next phase of service expansion involves other European nations where Binance has a trade license.
Binance announced its partnership with Ingenico, a global payment solutions provider, to make it easier for customers to make in-store payments using Binance Pay.
Ingenico’s press release asserted that the first pilot of this new partnership is only accessible on Ingenico Axium payment terminals in France and accepts more than 50 cryptocurrencies. La Carlie and Miss Opéra, two French merchants, are participating in the live pilot.
Executive Vice President for Global Solutions and Innovation at Ingenico, Michel Léger, stated:
“As a leading payment ecosystem accelerator, we are excited to partner with up-and-coming brands like Binance to bring cryptocurrency payments to retail for consumers worldwide.” Ingenico, which strives to create solutions adapted to the modern world of payments, partners with experts to ensure that consumers benefit from a smoother transaction process, whatever their payment method.
The next phase of service expansion involves other European nations where Binance has a trade license. Italy, Lithuania, Spain, Poland, Cyprus, and Sweden are mentioned.
Ingenico added that most cryptocurrency payment solutions need third-party or merchant integration.
Therefore, its partnership with Binance will solve this issue by giving retailers access to an “all-in-one” gadget.
Ingenico explained how working with Binance would be advantageous, saying:
“This solution will provide customers and merchants with a simple and secure transaction experience.” Merchants equipped with Ingenico payment terminals and cryptocurrency holders using the Binance wallet can transact directly. This solution automatically offers an exchange rate, which will be blocked for a few minutes, allowing a fast and smooth user experience”.
Jonathan Lim, Director of Binance Pay and Binance Card, added the following to the advantages of this alliance:
“One of the major advantages of this partnership is that it offers companies a new approach to the market. Their dominant position in the market and their innovative payment solutions allow us to accelerate our access to consumers, without having to create our own terminals or software”.
Related Initiatives by Binance and Other Companies
Binance has launched several payment solutions worldwide in the last 12 months. On January 30, it began collaborating with Mastercard to provide a prepaid crypto card in Brazil. The card issuer is Dock, a financial entity under the control of the Brazilian Central Bank.
The card would enable new and current Binance customers in Brazil with legitimate Identification to make cryptocurrency payments. According to Binance, the card is currently in beta testing and will soon become widely available.
Binance introduced a cryptocurrency card payment solution for Argentina in partnership with Mastercard in August 2022. The card would enable the crypto trading platform’s customers in the country to withdraw cryptocurrency in exchange for fiat currency from ATMs.
Additionally, Binance users in Argentina can purchase from the approximately 90 million offline and online shops accepting Mastercard.
Binance Facing U.S. Regulatory Action
The United States regulatory authorities are now taking action against Binance. Binance cut ties with its U.S. partners due to the SEC’s crackdown on cryptocurrency.
Patrick Hillmann, chief strategy officer at Binance, expresses concern that the industry may be choked by strict regulations and experience significant market volatility. The U.S. SEC and NYDFS ordering Paxos, which issued Binance USD (BUSD), to stop minting these stablecoins had the most significant impact.
Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao hints at U.S. regulators explicitly targeting the company because of its influence in the cryptocurrency market.