Switzerland is truly experiencing a crypto boom, and now, it is further expanding with the idea of retailers offering Bitcoin vouchers and gift cards.
The largest department store chain in Switzerland, Manor, already has Bitcoin voucher cards out for sale in 59 of its branches. Retail giant Valora will also start offering Bitcoin gift cards in kiosks all around the country starting with the first day of April.
Named “Cryptonow,” these BTC vouchers come from the stables of Värdex Suisse, which is a crypto-financial services firm and a subsidiary of crypto exchange Bitcoin Suisse.
Simon Grylka, the head of operations at Värdex, said that Cryptonow would offer a simple and attractive onboarding channel for those who are interested in crypto. Grylka also compared Cryptonow vouchers to digital gold coins.
These voucher cards can be acquired in three different variants within a range of 100 to 500 francs ($107 to $535).
The top-50 blockchain firms in the Crypto Valley have reached over 680% in value since the summer of 2020.
Merchant adoption of BTC is still growing, but it hasn’t reached its full potential yet, so Cryptonow owners will be a bit limited in their possibility of spending the Bitcoin gift cards.
The best option for them is to either redeem the vouchers at an exchange service or sell the Bitcoin amount loaded on the card by using one of the 70 Bitcoin ATMs that Värdex operates.
Using gift cards to buy crypto has been proven to be popular in the peer-to-peer trading arena – even more so in those jurisdictions in which the financial services infrastructure has yet to be developed properly.