Protracted political protests in Hong Kong have prompted some of the territory’s department stores and retailers to begin accepting cryptocurrencies for payment as a way to undercut uncertainty.

According to News BTC, Pricerite has become one of the first mall chains to recognize payments using cryptocurrencies.

Retailers Accepting an Array of Cryptocurrencies

Pricerite’s adoption of cryptocurrencies was made known by the Bitcoin Association of Hong Kong. The retailer says it is the first of its kind in the region to take such a step, with the association posting to Facebook that Pricerite would accept Bitcoin (BTC), Litecoin (LTC) and Ethereum (ETH) at its Megabox branch.

CEO James Leung explained, “Continuing with our commitment to the integration of advanced technologies with human talent, we adopted a wide range of state-of-the-art retail technologies, providing customers with an all-rounded shopping experience.” 

At Pricerite’s New Retail concept store at MegaBox in Kowloon Bay, customers will be able to use the Lightning Network to purchase goods and services with cryptocurrencies. The payments are to be immediately converted into Hong Kong dollars upon completion.

Crypto Adoption Tied to Hong Kong Unrest

While Pricerite itself did not say that its decision was in any way related to political protests that have brought millions of Hong Kong citizens to the streets, news outlets including News BTC have made the correlation. It was indicated that financial periodical Forbes recently connected a turn to Bitcoin in Hong Kong by retailers to the political tensions.

The News BTC article noted that civil problems worldwide have resulted in increased adoption of cryptocurrencies. Examples include a crypto price premiums spike in Argentina connected to economic oppression and even the use of Bitcoin Cash (BCH) to make donations to Hong Kong protesters.

Source: www.newsbtc.com 

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