Konzum, the largest food producer and retailer in the Western Balkans, has become the first retail public chain in Croatia where consumers can pay using digital assets. Currently, such deals are only available in online stores, but the company plans to launch the service in its supermarkets in the near future.

In addition, Newegg, a leading technology e-retailer in North America, announced that it will accept Shiba Inu (SHIB) as a payment method on its platform during the Christmas season. London-based consumer tech company Nothing will also not allow cryptocurrency settlement for its products.

Crypto invades the Balkans

Konzum is the largest supermarket chain in Croatia with more than 10,000 employees. It revealed that it will enter the cryptocurrency industry by accepting several digital assets as a means of payment. These include Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Ripple (XRP), Stellar (XLM), Dai (Dai), EOS (EOS), Tether (USDT), and USDC.

To enable such payments, Konzum has partnered with domestic fintech company Electrocoin and its PayCek system, which is described as Croatia's first cryptocurrency payment processor. Given the volatility of most digital tokens, the latter will guarantee the buyer a fixed exchange rate at the start of the transaction and provide sufficient time for successful execution.

Konzum's Finance and IT Management Board member, Uro, noted that Konzum has been monitoring global trends, suggesting that the cryptocurrency industry is one of them. "As Croatia's leading retail public chain, which has been a domestic market leader in terms of business results and technical achievements throughout its nearly 65-year history, we are proud to be a leader in another sector that is rapidly developing and determining the future," he concluded.

Konzum is not only the leading supermarket chain in Croatia, but also the largest supermarket chain in the Western Balkans. In addition to the motherland, it extends to two other countries - Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia. The retail giant serves more than 650,000 customers a day across its more than 700 stores, as cryptocurrency options will be available at some of them in the coming months.

Another big e-commerce company that has recently accepted additional digital asset settlements is Newegg. The California-based company, which accepted Bitcoin as a payment method in 2014, has now added the popular meme coin Shiba Inu (SHIB) to its list of supported digital assets. Interestingly, it showed the news on the reef, which is North America's largest DOOH billboard located in downtown Los Angeles.

Shiba Inu Billboard, Source: newegg.com

Earlier this year, Newegg was one of the first companies in the world to embrace SHIB's competitor Dogecoin (DOGE). Later, it also added Litecoin (LTC).

Andrew Choi, the company's director of brand marketing, admitted that customers are very interested in cryptocurrencies. Giving them the option to use Bitcoin and altcoins as payment methods could offer "greater flexibility."

Then Nown - a tech company founded by Carl Pei (co-founder of OnePlus) - jumped on the cryptocurrency bandwagon by accepting digital asset payments from Nown Ear's black version of wireless earbuds. These coins are Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), USDC and (DOGE).

Payment options are available on the Nothing online store in the following countries: UK, USA, Canada, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy and Japan.