MEXICO CITY, Dec 17 (Reuters) – Mexico’s Grupo Elektra will settle for bitcoin as fee for purchases, the newest retailer in Latin America to embrace the cryptocurrency because it grows in recognition.
Elektra, a grocery store and banking chain that belongs to conglomerate Grupo Salinas, is providing a 20% low cost on purchases with bitcoin, in keeping with a web-based advert shared on Twitter by Mexican billionaire Ricardo Salinas Pliego.
“The rumors are true. Elektra is the primary (retail) retailer in Mexico that permits you to purchase with bitcoin,” Salinas stated in a tweet. “I am very sorry to beat the competitors once more.”
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Purchases will undergo BitPay, a U.S.-based bitcoin fee service supplier.
A spokesperson for Grupo Salinas had no quick remark.
Salinas, one in every of Mexico’s richest folks, is the proprietor of the Banco Azteca banking enterprise, and in June stated he was working to it the primary financial institution in Mexico to simply accept bitcoin.
Financial institution of Mexico Governor Alejandro Diaz de Leon, like another central bankers, has warned against bitcoin as a high-risk funding and poor retailer of worth on account of its volatility.
El Salvador made historical past this yr as the primary nation to undertake bitcoin as authorized tender, alongside the U.S. greenback. Low-cost airline Volaris, based mostly in Mexico, adopted go well with, saying it will accept bitcoin in El Salvador.
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Reporting by Cassandra Garrison; Enhancing by Alexander Smith
Our Requirements: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
