Image: Elektra
One of Mexico's largest retail stores, Elektra, has announced that it will start accepting Bitcoin as payment for purchases. The founder of the company expressed his delight that Elektra is the first of its kind in Mexico.
Elektra, owned by the conglomerate, Grupo Salinas, has launched the ability to pay for goods in Bitcoin directly, without intermediaries. In addition, customers can get a 20% discount on purchases using cryptocurrency, announced the founder and chairman, Ricardo Salinas Pliego. He was clearly very excited about the innovation that Elektra is now offering.
“The rumors are true. Elektra is the first (retail) store in Mexico that allows you to buy with bitcoin,” Salinas said in a tweet. “I'm very sorry to beat the competition again.” (Translated from Spanish.)
Elektra is similar to Amazon in Mexico, allowing shoppers to shop online for a range of household items, electronics, personal items, among others. The company is part of Grupo Elektra, one of the largest financial and retail corporations in North America, with a market capitalization of $16.3 billion.
Three months ago, Salinas announced that Elektra will integrate the Bitcoin Lightning Network into its businesses, allowing customers to pay with crypto as the demand for this payment option continues to grow. He is a Bitcoin advocate and likes to call himself HODLer. The billionaire revealed last November that he invested 10% of his liquid portfolio in Bitcoin. In the middle of this year, he attacked fiat, calling it the largest fraud in human history.
Salinas also recently hinted that his bank, Banko Azteca, will be the first bank in Mexico to accept Bitcoin. If that happens, it could be another strong indicator of cryptocurrency adoption in Latin America. However, there has been no new information on these plans since June after the Bank of Mexico closed this offer, saying cryptocurrencies were not recognized as legal tender by the central bank.
© 2021, Eva Fox | Tesmanian. All rights reserved.
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Article edited by @SmokeyShorts, you can follow him on Twitter
About the Author
Eva Fox
Eva Fox joined Tesmanian in 2019 to cover breaking news as an automotive journalist. The main topics that she covers are clean energy and electric vehicles. As a journalist, Eva is specialized in Tesla and topics related to the work and development of the company.
